Social service agencies unite to help homeless with event

NASHUA – While the zoning board has cleared one hurdle in the way of a new homeless shelter in the city, dozens of social service agencies are organizing to host the fourth annual Project Homeless Connect Day.

Project Homeless Connect Day is a sort of “social service fair,” according to Nashua Welfare Officer Bob Mack, a chance for the city’s homeless population, and those at risk of being homeless, to access a wide range of health, employment and housing services in one place.

The fair is organized by the Greater Nashua Continuum of Care and will be held from noon-4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, at Harbor Homes Inc., 45 High St.

“It’s a quick way to find out what help there is,” Mack said.

Hot meals are available at the event, along with haircuts, clothes, warm-weather gear like coats, gloves and hats, and medical screenings and referrals, flu shots, domestic abuse counseling and mental-health and substance abuse treatment.

Several of the agencies have been holding drives to collect donations for the homeless, Mack said, including Nashua Catholic Junior High School. Students there are collecting boxes of granola bars to be given out at the fair, he said.

For more information visit the Greater Nashua Continuum of Care’s Web site, www.nashua-coc.org; the Nashua Division of Public Health and Community Services Web site, www.nashuanh.gov, click on departments and then public health & community service; or call the city’s Welfare Department at 589-4555.