Neighbors oppose transition housing for women and children in Manchester
Mar. 4—Manchester neighbors who unsuccessfully tried to prevent transitional housing from moving into a former law office on Maple Street earlier this year are now worried about another program proposed a few doors away.
Light of Life Ministries Inc. hopes to offer transitional housing at 247 Pearl St. for women and children. The proposal is to go before the planning board Thursday night for permitting.
The plan calls for eight units inside the 3,349-square-foot, two-family home. The group home will be the third in the neighborhood.
Opposition to the plan comes in the wake of area residents' battles with illegal group homes, including a sober house at 70 Russell St. that city officials believe has since moved.
Roger Robidas, whose properties in the neighborhood include 242 Pearl St., said he heard about the group-housing plan from workers renovating the building. He leases two units in a house across the street.
"It's smack dab in the middle of a residential area with a bunch of kids," he said. "If it was more in a commercial neighborhood, I could understand it."
Nine residents spoke against a plan to convert law offices at 573 Maple St. into transitional housing for adults at a Jan. 2 planning board meeting.
Contoocook-based NFI North plans to provide transitional housing to eight adults with behavioral mental health challenges. Services will include vocational training, meal preparation and budgeting.
City planners say such programs are allowed under existing zoning. The planning board approved NFI's plan on Jan. 21.
Liberty House, which provides sober housing and various services for homeless and struggling veterans, is about a block away on Orange Street. That program is run by Catholic Charities New Hampshire.
Kristie McKenney, founder and CEO of Light of Life Ministries, declined to comment Wednesday.
In a letter to the planning board dated Jan. 9, she acknowledged "some pushback from the neighborhood."
"The Light House project will support some of the city's most vulnerable people, women and children in crisis," she wrote. "Through our short term (9-12 months) transitional housing program, women (along with their children) will be provided a safe and nurturing home environment where they will heal from past traumas."
The women will not be permitted to have cars and will be transported by two full-time case management workers and volunteers. Smoking and vaping will not be permitted inside the building or outside on the property.
Terry Karr, senior pastor of the Christian Family Worship Center, lives next to the NFI North's property at 235 Pearl St. The Light of Life's proposed transitional housing is two doors away.
He said as a pastor he is always willing to help people, but believes the housing will reverse the work neighbors have done to clean up the area. He said he often finds needles and drug paraphernalia near the church and parsonage.
He said he worries about the safety of children coming to the church's programs on Sundays and Wednesdays. He doesn't know who will be living at the property or anything about their backgrounds.
"It makes it difficult for us to ensure the children will be safe," he said.
McKenney said the organization will work to beautify the outside of the home so it blends in with the neighborhood.
"Many of the women coming into our program have led difficult lives," she wrote. "Our mission is to give them a safe place to heal and recover. We will do this by NOT bringing a lot of attention to the home."
Robidas said that given recent approval for NFI North, he's not sure the neighborhood will have much say about the Light of Life's plan.
"It seems like they had their minds made up already and it didn't do us much good," he said. "It seems like they just pushed it through, and what's the purpose of having the meeting if they already have their mind made up?"