New Hampshire would provide additional money for homeless shelters under a bill by state Sen. Donovan Fenton that has been winning legislative support.

The Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee on Friday approved spending $2.5 million in federal pandemic relief funds to boost from $20 to $27 the rate the state pays organizations for each day they shelter a person. Senate Bill 406, whose prime sponsor is Fenton, D-Keene, calls for the funding boost. 

The money would be helpful, especially since the actual daily cost of providing emergency shelter for one person is actually at least $45, and that doesn’t include various additional resources many shelters provide, Becky Beaton, executive director of Hundred Nights in Keene, said Monday.

Hundred Nights has a resource center that provides meals and information to help people retain or return to permanent housing. The nonprofit also helps people find medical care and connect with resources for mental health, substance dependency and rehabilitation.

The shelter has 48 beds, and they are typically all full.

“If we have a guest leave, the bed is usually filled within one to two nights after, and then it stays full,” Beaton said.

The problem of people experiencing homelessness has reached epic proportions, she said.

“The floodgates were opened when a lot of the federal funding available during the pandemic dried up and the cost of housing just skyrocketed as well,” Beaton said.

Fenton said SB 406, which has passed the Senate and is pending in the House, is a “Band-Aid for a larger situation."

“We really need to address the root causes of homelessness, and this bill is not going to create any more beds, but these shelters need the help — some of them are drying up for lack of funds,” he said.

An earlier version of the bill would have provided $5 million to towns and cities, which would use the funds to help people avoid eviction, find a new place to live or access temporary shelter. The bill was amended in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on April 5.   

Fenton said that ultimately, what is needed are more programs to help people avoid losing their housing in the first place.

“If we help that person, that frees up a bed at a shelter, and if we keep helping those people upstream, eventually these shelter beds will keep opening.”

He said the problem is multi-faceted.

“It’s economical, it’s mental health, it’s substance abuse. There are so many pieces of the homelessness situation. We’re trying to address each one. There’s no magic bullet.”