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Manchester extends winter shelter through March amid dispute over funding source
Summary
The Board of Mayor & Aldermen approved a Dec. 1–Mar. 31 extension for the 39 Beech Street shelter and funding for a winter warming program after weeks of debate over using the Affordable Housing Trust Fund versus ARPA or other sources.
Mayor Jay Breweig announced the board voted to extend the lease for the 39 Beech Street shelter from Dec. 1 through March 31 and approved related professional services and winter-warming funding after heated discussion about where to draw the money.
The extension passed after several aldermen pressed for a short-term solution to keep people off the street this winter. Mayor Breweig said the city had hoped nonprofit partners would take over but called the lapse in outside funding “a goose egg” from the county that forced the city to act. “I did not want to use anything like the Affordable Housing Trust Fund dollars for it, but I could not make a determination until I knew what we were going to get from the county,” he said.
Opponents argued the Affordable Housing Trust Fund should not be spent on a temporary shelter. Alderman LeVasseur said the fund was intended for long‑term affordable housing, not a four‑month shelter. “Put that $300,000 back into the affordable housing fund where it belongs,” he said during debate.
City staff and aldermen negotiated fiscal adjustments at the meeting: $407,000 was identified as the overall building cost for the shelter from Dec. 1 to March 31 and $150,000 as staffing for the winter warming effort; together those figures were discussed routinely as $557,000–$577,000 in total program costs. To reduce the Affordable Housing Trust Fund draw the board approved reallocations including shifting $100,000 from Manchester Development/MPAL proposals and eliminating a $158,000 case‑manager line, among other adjustments.
Aldermen also approved an amendment to the shelter’s professional services agreement extending those services to March 31, 2025. Several members said they would continue seeking nonprofit partners to operate the shelter in future years and pledged not to include a permanent city shelter commitment in next year’s municipal budget.
What’s next: the extension keeps operation and winter-warming capacity intact through March while aldermen and staff pursue longer-term options with local nonprofits and state partners.
