Lawmakers question last‑minute sale of Anna Philbrook Center, seek review

Representative Mary Jane Wallner introduced HB 15-69, which would repeal budget language directing the sale of the Anna Philbrook Center (often called the Philbrook Center) on the New Hampshire Hospital campus. Wallner described the building’s decades‑long role as a children’s psychiatric facility, its later conversion to office space and most recently its partial use as a 16‑bed transitional housing program for people leaving New Hampshire Hospital.

Wallner said the sale language appeared late in the budget process with little public input and no public‑works committee review. She and witnesses warned that disposing of the facility could reduce local housing options important to timely hospital discharges and community transitions.

Susan Stearns of NAMI New Hampshire urged the committee to repeal the sale language, arguing that the state has lost inpatient and community residential capacity over many years and that the Philbrook program plays a role in reducing emergency‑department boarding. DHHS officials (Katja Fox, director of behavioral health division, and Ellen Lapointe, CEO of New Hampshire Hospital) told the committee that the transitional housing program was always intended to be temporary in the Philbrook building; DHHS said it has issued a procurement and expects to maintain a total of about 92 transitional beds statewide (40 on campus and 52 in the community), including beds currently at Philbrook, by contracting with a vendor.

Members asked about the status of the sale, whether offers have been received, which parcels would be included, and whether transitioning beds to community providers would relocate capacity away from Concord. DHHS said a transition plan must be submitted to the Department of Administrative Services before the property can be marketed and that sale processes are managed by DAS; DHHS acknowledged there is funding for 92 transitional beds in the current budget but no additional funding to retain Philbrook as an extra 16 beds without new appropriations.

The committee scheduled a Division 3 tour of the Philbrook Center and forwarded HB 15-69 for further review.