Need town shelter available 24/7
What a winter this is! With frigid temperatures refusing to budge, I can’t imagine what it would be like not to have a warm home to retreat to, can you? Recalling MATS director Susan Howard’s Ledger-Transcript article of Sept. 5, we cannot look away from the homelessness in our region, especially this winter.
Boston University’s 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors and America’s Homelessness Crisis tells us that more Americans experience homelessness than are diagnosed with cancer each year and that homelessness affects more Americans than opioid use disorders and death from overdose. Think about that.
If you think this data may be outdated or relevant only in densely populated urban areas, consider the October 2025 New Hampshire Housing report that shows a city-by-city account of wages required to afford median rent in our state. Consider Keene; one needs to earn $33.10/hour. Statewide, the majority of the workforce cannot afford median rent, even fully employed. Howard’s article explained how quickly these circumstances devolve into homelessness.
In Peterborough, we are fortunate to have several emergency shelters offering overnight accommodations. For these to be open, they must be supervised. The shelter where I volunteer requires six individuals plus meal donations to be open one night. There have been nights we could not open, despite dire need, because we didn’t have enough volunteers. Using such resources for so little effect is like sticking one’s thumb in the dike.
Homelessness is a real issue in our town, one that could affect our neighbor, our friend, our restaurant server, our town government employee. We can create a solution we can all support and be proud of. We need a town warming shelter that is available 24/7 during temperature and weather extremes and other crises as well.