State Rejects Homeless Org's Offer to Buy Building

The state of New Hampshire has rejected an offer by the Open Hands Resource Center to purchase Carter Abbott Farm, a farmhouse and barn on 3.2-acres of land on Iron Works Road that has been on the market for a number of years.

Specifics about the deal were not available at post time but volunteers for the organization stated that it primarily had to do with the bid being below what the state wants to receive for the building, despite the pressing need for the facility in the community and the money that would need to be put into refurbishing the building, according to homeless activists.

“We have seen total devastation come to the Concord homeless community,” Roberta Hixson, one of the volunteers, said in an email this week. “We have seen the tears. I have heard, ‘Now what are we going to do?’ I have heard, ‘We are people, too.’ It is not a sin to be poor or homeless.”

Hixson said this week has been “heartbreaking” not only because the rejection of the sale by the state but also because of the temperature changes in recent days

“They were cold … as time goes, the colder it gets,” she said, adding that she saw many homeless peole “in tears.”

Being homeless, she said, shouldn’t be considered a crime; cutting down the homeless person’s tent should be. Hixson noted that many were in the street due to mental illness, not ever having been able to get the proper treatment, or war injuries.

“I’m not sure the community knows just how bad the situation is,” she said. “We have people on the streets right now that will freeze to death this winter. Not having a cold weather shelter will be a disaster. We are asking our community to step up. We are looking for a few donors willing to help put up the funding for a full time shelter/transitional housing.”

Hixson and other organizers stated that there has been pressure from others in the community that if they just dropped the faith-based part of the organization’s initiative, it would receive more help from others in the community, including non-religious charitable institutions and government entities. However, activists countered that it goes against the mission of the organization which is to assist but also lead others to faith, too. The organization is also an all-volunteer entity. There is no paid staff, she said.

Organizers and volunteers at the organization are now reactivating themselves to jump-start a fundraising effort toward purchasing the building. They started the effort in January but so far, donations have been very slow coming in. A GoFundMe page with a goal of $100,000 only has $420 donations, as of 3 p.m. on Oct. 1, 2015.

“I know it’s all In God’s hands,” Hixson said. “But I feel I need to push o … (this) is a last ditch kind of plea to the people and the city. We are asking the people of Concord to help. We are asking private donors to step forward and help with this cause.”