This is a big win that came out of our city's Ad-Hoc Committee on Housing Stability. If all goes to plan, people being released from protective custody at the Cheshire County jail will no longer just be dropped off at the bus stop on Gilbo Avenue in downtown Keene and left to fend for themselves. They will instead have options to get connected to transportation and social services they need to avoid having to be unhoused.
From the Sentinel Article by Hunter Oberst:
Doug Iosue, the jail’s superintendent, told The Sentinel that many of these individuals are taken into protective custody because they’re intoxicated or incapacitated, but haven’t necessarily committed a crime. By law, he explained, the jail cannot hold them for more than 24 hours...
Right now, staff at the jail tries to find a responsible, sober driver to come pick up people who are being released, but often this is not possible, so they are taken to downtown Keene and left to fend for themselves.
Rather than releasing them outside the jail on Route 101, which he said is dangerous, they’re brought to Gilbo Avenue, putting them closer to city services.... This policy applies to anyone from Cheshire County, which census statistics show is more than 700 square miles, regardless of where they’re from.
Cheshire County is a big place. Imagine someone arrested in Ringe trying to find their way back home from Keene if no one will give them a ride. We don't have the kind of public transportation network that can support that.
According to the article, jail staff dropped off 133 people at Gilbo Avenue in 2022.
The details are still being worked out, with further decisions being made in April, but it appears that transportation is a key part of the fix:
[City Manager Elizabeth] Dragon said Keene helps those who are unhoused seek assistance, either by helping them find shelter or through connecting them with the community where they’re from.... She added that an idea briefly mentioned in discussions is having a contracted transportation service that could bring someone leaving the jail within a certain radius of where they want to go or where they were originally picked up.