Posts by Winter Trabex
No matter how much compassion is shown by volunteers, no matter how often police officers report to a call, no matter how many shelter beds are open, unless the fundamental problems surrounding poverty and homelessness change, things aren’t going to improve. Fatality prevention just isn’t enough.
Blistering cold winds blew through the homeless camp outside the Hillsborough County Courthouse at 300 Chestnut Street Wednesday morning. The temperature had dropped to 25 degrees overnight and still had not risen above freezing when the sun had risen. The situation was predicted to get worse- according to weather.com, the low on Wednesday night, November 18th, was supposed to be 17 degrees.
Two homeless camps on the property of the Hillsborough County Courthouse have been growing in size over the last year. The first signs of the camp appeared when a handful of people slept in the open air on the corner of Merrimack and Chestnut streets. Now, after COVID-19 has wreaked havoc with the economy, the camp is up to about 25 tents with a multitude of people coming and going.
Regardless of whether the school reopens in November for all or continues with remote learning, Principal Vacarezza will continue to lead Central High with the same compassion and courage he has done for the last seven years.
On Sunday afternoon, while clouds gathered overhead threatening rain, people gathered in Veteran’s Park for a march against police brutality. As is the case with many public events, the peaceful march was juxtaposed with a very visible presence of police officers who were on stand-by as the group moved through the downtown.
Juneteenth, a mash-up of the words “June” and “Nineteenth,” was celebrated this year in front of the Hopknot on Elm Street. A sizeable crowd, among them Mayor Joyce Craig, gathered in the shade to eat gourmet pretzels, swill drinks and listen to various black activists and community members share their experiences and stories.
No one had the same answer. A multiplicity of options were available. However, one fact began to emerge: In order to get there, participants believed compassion and kindness would be required. It would not be enough for people simply to gain material security for themselves. People would have to help each other.
Protesters gathered in front of the Manchester City Hall on Elm Street Tuesday in advance of the scheduled special budget meeting, calling for the resignation of At-Large Alderman Joe Levasseur and Ward 8 Alderman Michael Porter. A Change.org petition echoing that sentiment has been circulating since last Friday has more than 5,300 signatures.
Providing support during a pandemic has been especially important. Mental health issues have increased while people become stir crazy. Some desire a return to how things used to be; the way things used to be done, if not ideal, was at least predictable. New patterns have caused disruptions which has become difficult to cope with.
Living in a tent while almost every business is shut down has proved a challenge. Many non-profit services upon which Manchester’s homeless population relied have been closed down. Many food pantries are no longer open. Many places where homeless people could have lunch and grab some food to go has limited or stopped the services they provide. This has led to a series of daily challenges, the biggest of which is food.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Manchester Pathways Clubhouse has been closed, as have many other non-profit services. However, unlike some others who have closed down entirely, Pathways has instead moved its services online. Rather than having members come in every Tuesday and Thursday, now members can come in, they can join Zoom meetings which take place twice a day on the weekdays – once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
ven while self-isolating at home, Pat Long is still a busy man. He currently serves as the alderman for Ward 3 in Manchester as well as a state representative for Hillsborough District 10. While both the city council and the state house are closed while the epidemic persists, Pat has been involved in video chat sessions in order to get things done.
On Sunday, March 29, she went to the Catholic Medical Center. She’d had difficulty breathing for a few days. She had even gone three weeks previous to this, but was escorted outside as she showed none of the normal symptoms. She believes she may have had the coronavirus the whole time. As someone in a wheelchair, she did not go anywhere else or do anything. She was at New Horizons the entire time, dating back to last fall.
Capped this past October at 138 participants at one time, New Horizons, owned and operated by Families in Transition, has faced a number of unprecedented challenges which often leaves them faced with difficult choices.
Sliced bread and ramen noodles were almost completely gone. Toilet paper and tissue paper were nowhere to be found. The meat section had been picked three-quarters clean, leaving very little for the shoppers who had come in at that time of day. Nevertheless, employees of the store pushed around carts with orange signs on the sides, picking up items for people ordering online.
At half-past six on a quiet Thursday night in the beginning of March, representatives from a group called Progressive Manchester NH assembled at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Union Street for a unique event. Lawyers had come to volunteer their time in the evening to inform the general public about what rights tenants and landlords have under both federal and state law.
For several months now, MAD NH has been running an outreach program in Manchester aimed at filling in the gaps the shelters, the state, and other charitable organizations leave open. Food stamps, for example, does not pay for toothpaste or deodorant, two items it is commonly accepted are necessary to make a good impression at a job interview.
Such people are often in the background, laboring in obscurity. Their job is nonetheless important. Without their expertise and hard work, the election process, such as it currently exists, would not be possible.
More than 14,000 Central High students graduated under the leadership of Principal William Burns.
