Mayor moves to 'dissolve' Manchester's housing stability department

May 5—Less than a year after its creation, Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais will ask aldermen this week to begin the process of dissolving the city's Department of Housing Stability, and place director and staff positions under the umbrella of his office.

The request comes just weeks after the department's former director, Adrienne Beloin, agreed to resign her position as part of a $57,000 settlement with the city after comments she made at a public meeting and on a radio program upset some city officials.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen are expected to take up the request Tuesday at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

In a memo to aldermen, Ruais wrote that he doesn't believe the position of director of homelessness initiatives should be housed in another department like fire, health, welfare or planning and community development.

"There needs to be an individual responsible for coordinating these efforts for all departments and the city," Ruais wrote. "I do not believe we need a department to effectively address this challenge. Historically, this role has been housed within the mayor's office."

"We are currently interviewing to fill the position of director of homelessness initiatives, and we will not go backwards."

Ruais went on to list several initiatives the city has undertaken to address homelessness since he took office including:

—Expanding the Continuum of Care with the addition of 15 community partners.

—Rewriting the city's strategic plan to address opioid overdoses with the release of the 2024 City of Manchester Overdose Prevention Strategy.

—Working toward having 15 parcels of land deemed as surplus with 100% of the proceeds going toward affordable housing.

—Creating additional housing units with the ordinance change the mayor's office proposed to increase the number of Accessory Dwelling Units and multi-family units in the city.

—And working with Members First Credit Union to launch a pilot program connecting homeless individuals with identification cards and their birth certificates at no charge at the city's Engagement Center.

If amenable to the mayor's request, aldermen will send an ordinance amendment dissolving the Department of Housing Stability to the Committee on Bills on Second Reading for technical review.

Manchester officials have posted the job of director of homelessness initiatives on the city's website.

The job posting lists the position's salary as between $80,000 and $100,000 a year, with duties including providing administrative oversight to operations and activities related to the city's response to homelessness, as well as community outreach services to reduce the rate of homelessness in Manchester.

"The nature of the work performed requires that the incumbent establish and maintain effective working relationships with other city employees, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, business and community groups, state and federal officials, representatives of the media and the public," the posting states. "The duties of this position are performed in a general office environment as well as in various settings throughout the city, including the shelter/engagement center."

Full job posting

The full job posting can be found online at www.manchesternh.gov/Departments/Human-Resources/Employment.

Beloin earned a salary of $104,219 in fiscal year 2023, according to salary and benefit data released by City Hall.

Job duties include:

—Under the direction of the mayor, coordinate the city response to issues related to homelessness including the mitigation of homeless encampments.

—Strengthen collaboration and coordination between all homelessness service providers, including city departments, the state of New Hampshire DHHS, non-profit and faith-based organizations.

—Create and implement a comprehensive 'Housing First' Homelessness Plan, use data to maximize the impact of the existing services and funding, as well as inform planning, resource allocation and track progress on key metrics.

—Work with the Manchester Continuum of Care (CoC) to research and analyze homelessness and related issues in the city and report findings.

—Provide oversight of any city-run shelter locations as well as the city's Engagement Center.

—Respond to citizens' questions and comments in a courteous and timely manner.

On April 2, aldermen voted to direct Beloin to work out of the Beech Street homeless shelter, saying operations at the site needed more "oversight."

The 9-5 vote to approve the move came despite Beloin's concerns that moving her office and department into the shelter at 39 Beech St. would be "stepping on toes of a management structure that already exists."

"There's site directors, there's managers, there are supervisors on shifts — they don't need another person coming in and confusing them," Beloin said before the vote. "We've made an enormous amount of progress in this past year that we should be really proud of, and we shouldn't lose any momentum of where we're going. And I know it's very hard for you to understand what the work is that we're doing because this is not your field of work."

The comments angered Alderman Dan O'Neil, who accused Beloin of speaking to board members like they were "dummies."

Two days later, Beloin went on WFEA radio in Manchester with host Drew Cline to push back on the vote, accusing board members of political "posturing."

Beloin resigned effective 5 p.m., April 12.

pfeely@unionleader.com