Committee hears testimony on HB 519 funding request for Waypoint youth shelter

The Finance Division III chair convened a work session on Jan. 28 to consider House Bill 519, a funding request linked to Waypoint's homeless youth shelter in Manchester that serves young adults and provides case management aimed at preventing and shortening psychiatric hospitalization.

Katia Fox, director of the Division for Behavioral Health at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee that “the department is in support of this bill, and of this program.” Fox said the department used transferred Medicaid and other available funds to cover $500,000 for the shelter across fiscal 2024 and 2025 — $100,000 for 2024 and $400,000 for 2025 — under a contract that runs through June 30. She described the shelter as a 14-bed operation that provides short stays of up to two weeks, case management, work-readiness support and transition planning.

The program, Fox said, supports both the state’s plans for emergency psychiatric care and the children’s system of care by helping young adults leave acute facilities faster and by offering an alternative to emergency departments for people without other housing options. “As a consequence of the housing market being tight and the difficulty in finding appropriate housing, it's hard to discharge people once they go into that acute setting,” Fox said.

Waypoint officials described operations and intake policies. Borja Alvaro Toledo, identified as CEO of Waypoint, said the shelter accepts residents aged 18 to 24 and does not impose preferences based on gender or sexual orientation. “We do serve young people in this shelter that are 18 to 24 years old, so they age out on their 25th birthday. There is no preference,” Toledo said. Mandy Lancaster, director of Waypoint’s homeless youth and young adult programs, said the shelter is 14 beds and operates with two awake, overnight staff on duty; she said staff sometimes must turn away more than 20 young people in a night when beds are full.

Committee members pressed for operational details and safeguards. Members asked how the shelter protects residents and whether there are segregated sleeping areas; Lancaster described partial partitioning and staff supervision and said the organization would ask someone to leave if they could not be safely maintained. The panel also sought clarity on how Waypoint counts the population it serves; Lancaster said provider reporting uses the Homelessness Management Information System and that Waypoint is launching an internal system to improve outcome tracking. She said Waypoint estimates serving roughly 400 youth and young adults experiencing homelessness in Manchester through all programs.

Funding and budget placement were central topics. Committee members and Waypoint representatives discussed the shelter’s annual operating cost, and Waypoint estimated the shelter costs approximately $600,000 per year. Waypoint said it currently raises substantial private funds for a range of youth services statewide and has been raising roughly $1.2 million annually to sustain those programs; the organization said it had to raise an additional roughly $1.1 million to keep the shelter open and that relying on annual fundraising is not sustainable. The original state request associated with HB 519 was $500,000 per year; Fox and Waypoint officials said some of the current funding came from a transfer of Medicaid-related general funds and that those funds are not guaranteed in future budgets.

Committee members discussed how the bill is likely to move through the legislative process. The chair told Waypoint representatives there would be no immediate appropriation from the panel and said HB 519 would be handled as part of the broader budget process. “What’s probably going to happen is, effectively, HB 519 will become orphans somehow. We'll put it in the interim study, we'll do something with it because the subject and scope of the bill — we're gonna go ahead and migrate it over and make it part of our deliberative budget discussions,” the chair said. No formal motion or roll-call vote occurred at the work session.

The committee also questioned whether Waypoint’s contract contains standard nondiscrimination certifications and whether the shelter’s intake and admission protocols are consistent with state contract language; Fox said nondiscrimination provisions are standard in state contracts and that DHHS oversees contractual obligations for the shelter. Members raised questions about whether the shelter had quotas or targeted demographic goals; Waypoint representatives said the intake is first-come, first-served with some prioritization for vulnerability factors such as fleeing domestic violence or trafficking.

Committee members requested additional materials and follow-up. Members accepted Waypoint’s offer to host tours of the facility and asked DHHS and the vendor to provide additional financial detail and documentation of contract oversight. Committee members also asked that the agency and sponsor clarify how donated revenues would be reflected in the budget if a state appropriation were approved.

With no vote taken, the chair adjourned the work session and told participants that the bill and the underlying program would be considered as part of the agency’s budget deliberations later in the session.

At a glance: key figures and details

- Shelter licensed/resident age range in practice: 18–24 for the Manchester residential shelter; Waypoint said 12–17 may be served through MOUs with licensed residential facilities, not in the same 14-bed shelter. - Shelter capacity: 14 beds; Waypoint said staff often must turn away about 20 people per night when full. - Recent funding described: $500,000 total across two fiscal years (Fox described $100,000 for FY24 and $400,000 for FY25) provided through transfers into DHHS budgets; requested recurring funding: $500,000 per year as described in HB 519. - Waypoint reported overall youth-services fundraising needs: approximately $1.2 million annually for related programs; Waypoint said shelter operating cost is about $600,000 per year and that additional fundraising of roughly $1.1 million was required to sustain the shelter recently.

No formal action was taken at the work session; the item will be considered in the agency budget process.