KEENE, NH – The ongoing issue of homelessness in the Elm City will be back in the spotlight and on the Keene City Council’s agenda.

Keene City Councilor Randy Filiault says he accompanied a local homeless outreach coordinator on a walk through multiple homeless encampments within the city, and he told WKBK that he knew what he was getting into but was surprised in particular by the large amounts of trash littered around these encampments.

After his tour he penned a letter to the City Council describing what he saw and what he’d like to do about it.

“What I saw was breathtaking, but not in a positive way,” Filiault said in the letter. “What looked basically like a subdivision of squalor condition tent encampments, each with unbelievable huge areas of trash, discarded alcohol bottes, filthy sleeping bags and tents, and discarded and used hypodermic needles everywhere.”

He went on to say that he knows the issue has been brought up in the past and there have been committees formed to discuss the situation further, but he said that’s clearly not working.

Filiault is asking to schedule a workshop to include the Council, County Commissioners and Administrator, local State Representatives, local homeless advocates, property owners effected by the encampments, and the general public.

The letter appeared on the full council’s agenda last night and was referred to the Municipal Services, Facilities, and Infrastructure committee, which Filiault is the vice-chair of. A full copy of the letter is available in the September 21 Agenda Packet on page 58.

This isn’t the first time that City Councilors have taken up the issue. Back in March 2022 Councilors Bobby Williams, Catherine Workman, and Bryan Lake wrote a letter to the council outlining various programs the city could implement to help combat the homelessness issue in the city, which produces an ad-hoc committee on homelessness.