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Merrimack County human services reports housing outcomes for people who were unhoused
Summary
Human Services staff presented 2024 and early‑2025 statistics showing housing placements and service patterns for people served by county navigation, pretrial services and adult diversion programs, and noted severe local housing shortages.
Merrimack County Human Services presented data showing outcomes and service needs for people experiencing homelessness and at risk of homelessness across county navigation, pretrial services and adult diversion programs.
Nicole (Human Services presenter) told the commissioners the statistics in the packet covered 2024 and the first quarter of 2025; she said pretrial data for 2024 were available only for half the year because of database limitations. Using the data available, staff reported that 32.1% of people the navigation teams worked with in 2024 obtained housing. Nicole noted that HUD data show a very low vacancy rate for the county (0.07) and that New Hampshire's housing affordability index recently indicated the median household could not afford the median single‑family home.
The presentation included breakdowns of primary needs and trends: retaining housing (14.3% of requests in 2024) and unsheltered individuals seeking housing (22.9% of requests in 2024). Nicole said early 2025 trends appeared to show small decreases in some measures. Commissioners asked about communication methods for contacting people served; Nicole described multiple approaches including helping people secure state-provided free phones, routing mail to the resource center or the county building, and arranging in-person meetings during resource center hours.
Nicole framed the outreach approach as "meeting people where they are" and emphasized structural constraints (very low housing vacancy and high local housing costs) that limit rehousing options. Commissioners thanked staff and said they planned to use the statistics in future community conversations.
Ending: Staff said they will continue to refine reporting as database improvements are completed and will provide additional annual reports to commissioners.
