For many of us, the start of winter brings thoughts of picturesque snow fall, warm fires, and joyous family gatherings. For an overwhelming number of our NH neighbors facing housing instability and homelessness, the turn in season brings challenges no one should have to face. For homeless service providers in NH, the shift in weather signals the need to think about and plan for cold weather protection and fatality prevention, highlighting the gaps in resources needed in communities across the Granite State to provide safe and stable housing to all NH residents experiencing homelessness.

It’s hard to believe it has been five months since NHCEH held its second annual Summer Solstice Celebration in June – an event focused on homelessness as a solvable issue.  The celebration honored the accomplishments of four inspiring speakers who shared their experience of homelessness in the Granite State, and how they forged their pathways to housing stability with the support of their communities.

The message of hope and possibility provided by their collective voices is something that we at NHCEH are holding onto even more tightly during increasingly challenging times.  There are many critical changes happening at the federal level that, should they remain in place, will significantly impact the ability for service providers to meet the needs of our vulnerable NH residents. More specific information on these changes follow in the next section.

As we head into the 2025 holiday season and beyond, NHCEH will continue to anchor our work in the hope of one of the Solstice event speakers, who made a call to action:

“We need to stop pretending that homelessness is someone else’s problem; it is our problem."

Thank you for your continued support of NHCEH’s work, and for your recognition that homelessness is a community issue that requires community solutions!                           

Recent News of Note

The State of Homelessness in NH - 2025 Edition:

NHCEH will be publishing the 2025 edition of The State of Homelessness in NH this week - look for the link soon on our website at www.nhceh.org. Much time and effort has gone into producing this in-depth resource that helps educate all NH residents, inform policy and fuel best practice in NH’s response to homelessness. We thank the University of New Hampshire College of Health and Human Services for their sponsorship of the report. We encourage you to read through it and share the information with others, as the fulfillment of our mission starts with a comprehensive understanding of the issue for all NH residents. In an effort to make what is a thorough analysis a bit easier to review and absorb, we will share one page summaries highlighting specific sections of the report throughout the coming months.

Alarming Changes to Federal Homeless Services Funding:

In late November, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the Continuum of Care (CoC) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) which provides funding for a range of homeless services including Permanent Housing programs. The NOFO is usually released in July, with months until the application submission deadline.  This NOFO is due in mid-January, leaving providers only six weeks to prepare their applications for this critical funding. The short turnaround time is only one of many concerns about this NOFO, because it:

• Reduces the amount of funding NH is guaranteed to receive from 90% of last year’s funding to only 30%.  The remaining funding goes into a pool that becomes competitive with all applicants in the nation, putting the stability of our current funding and programs at significant risk.

• Caps funding designated for Permanent Housing (PH) projects at 30% of the total grant award. The National Alliance to End Homeless estimates that NH faces losing over 400 PH beds due to this new limitation, as NH currently spends about 80% of its CoC funding on PH projects.

• Creates a potential gap in funding due to the huge delay in the release of the NOFO for providers whose current contracts end before the release of funds for all newly awarded contracts. Any unbridged gaps in funding place programs and their participants at extreme risk.

In short, the changes in the NOFO requirements threaten to undermine the stability of Granite State programs that are built upon proven best practices and effectively prevent and reduce homelessness for NH’s most vulnerable residents. Contact NHCEH at [email protected] for information on how you can voice concern about these changes to your representatives.

A Year in Review

As we head into the last few weeks of 2025, NHCEH continues to work toward a New Hampshire where all residents have a place to call home. We celebrate the following highlights from the past year:

Virtual Capital Hill Day 2025:

This fall, NHCEH served as the State Coordinator for the National Alliance to End Homelessness Virtual Capitol Hill Day, convening NH participants from across the state to collaboratively identify priorities to discuss with NH representatives and congressional members. Throughout the course of the day, the NH cohort met with staff from the offices of Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassen, and Representatives Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander, sharing significant concerns about the future of homelessness funding and resources, and the impacts on NH’s homeless service providers ability to effectively support NH residents in accessing housing stability. 

Granite Leaders Class of 2025:

After completing five days of leadership and advocacy training, nine graduates joined the rank of Granite Leaders, bringing NHCEH’s total number of Granite Leader advocates to 61 individuals. We were honored to work with this year’s cohort and are thrilled to see the dedication this year’s graduates have to making a difference in NH.

New Granite Leaders Mentorship Program:

2025 marked the beginning of NHCEH’s Mentorship Program; an eight-week program that pairs Granite Leaders graduates with professionals working or volunteering in the field of housing and homelessness to provide real-world opportunities to practice, apply, and refine the leadership and advocacy skills gained through the Granite Leaders training program. The first cohort finished in the spring and the second cohort is actively engaged in learning throughout the fall months.

Regional Roundtable Listening Sessions:

A true highlight of 2025 was the opportunity to travel throughout NH to hold ten Regional Roundtable events that gathered together homeless service providers, local welfare staff, elected officials, law enforcement and community advocates to listen to the challenges and successes within each region around addressing homelessness. The conversations were both affirming and invigorating for all involved and did much to inform the needed support across the state.

Podcasts and More!

NHCEH Executive Director, Jennifer Chisholm worked to educate audiences about the realities of homelessness in NH, helping to challenge myths and highlight the impact of NH’s housing and livable wages challenges.

• Click here to listen to her speak on the overall state of homelessness in the Granite State on Business NH Magazine’s Biz Cast NH podcast.

• Click here to watch her speak as a panelist on NH Fiscal Policy Initiative’s (NHFPI) The State of Housing in NH: What the Latest Data Tells Us with Jess Williams from NHFPI, and Sarah Wrightsman from NH Housing.

  
  

• Click here to see NHCEH’s response to the Executive Order “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets”, issued this past July. The policies outlined in this order move away from proven best practices and promote a punitive approach to homelessness, threatening to further complicate the delivery of much-needed services to our most vulnerable NH neighbors. NHCEH’s Executive Director, Jennifer Chisholm, was interviewed by WMUR on her response to the order this past July.

NHCEH Executive Director Joins Leadership NH 2026 Cohort:

Jennifer was honored and excited to join the 2026 cohort of Leadership New Hampshire - a program that “gathers a select cohort of talented and accomplished individuals each year and provides them with an opportunity to learn about the complex issues facing our state, to connect with one another, and to serve their communities and our state in positions of leadership and responsibility.” This is a unique opportunity to grow, network and learn alongside other New Hampshire leaders across many different professions.

We are truly grateful for your support of our mission and encourage you to visit our website and make a donation today!

Thank you for helping us bring our NH neighbors home.

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Thank you for your support and for believing with us that

“having a home is a human right”!