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April 12: Adrienne Beloin has no regrets.
The current head of Manchester’s Housing Stability Department has had plenty of time to reflect on her situation since taking paid leave on April 5 after comments she made at a town hall and on a radio show disappointed some city officials.
Speaking to a reporter about a union leader less than 24 hours after agreeing to resign from his post as part of a $57,000 deal, Beloin said he didn’t wish he had treated things differently.
“I think the reaction to the way I’ve interacted with them is what you see when strong, smart women are direct and they’re not going to turn around when more dominant voices try to interrupt them,” Beloin said. I think it’s just a dynamic that exists, and I actually don’t regret the way I resisted it.
“What happened when I came out of the last board meeting was that my hopes of being able to work with that dominant component of the board were dashed,” he said. “I found it very transparent and my resolve to move forward and be ultra transparent about what’s going on and how I feel was a replacement and a decision that I made for the purpose of necessarily initiating the opt-out procedure with my employer.
“So it’s not remorse on my part, it’s intentional. “
Beloin said she was proud of the work she, her colleagues and netpainting partners have done in their 16 months on the job, adding that the Homeless Continuum of Care came up, which directs resources and helps others seeking housing and gets input from the National Alliance to End Homelessness to establish a design for the COC to work effectively.
“It’s been a huge boost and we’re very, very proud of it,” Beloin said. “And at the end of the day, I’m proud to do what I set out to do: when I walked into a local government in a position like this, I tried to make a difference. And I tried to infuse into verbal policy exchange the most productive practices and a deeper understanding of homelessness.
“I think right now one of my biggest successes is that this existing administration and the component of the board that hasn’t been aligned with me, with the project and the strategy that I’ve set, I think others are wondering. Immediately.
“Throughout the course of this case, I think it’s been eye-opening for everybody, on both sides of the matter. “
The Regulations
Manchester agreed to pay Beloin $57,000 to step down as the city’s director of housing stability, ending a public spat between her and councillors that lasted more than a week.
A copy of the agreement between Beloin and the city received through the union leader shows that Beloin earned $5,064. 35 on or before April 23 in exchange for his resignation until five p. m. Friday, April 12.
Council of Mayors and Aldermen President Joe Kelly Levasseur said some city officials were interested in accepting the payment.
“While many councilmembers, myself included, did not have to pay Beloin a dime for not adhering to a new policy directive to establish his workplace in the 40,000-square-foot homeless shelter, it was more productive to resolve this matter and move forward. A cloud has risen from the shoulders of this city. In fact, sunny days are coming and we will see major innovations at 39 Beech Street in the near future. “
A source with direct knowledge of the scenario said city officials expect Beloin to sue the city following recent comments from some officials, saying that in the long run, the settlement would save Manchester a great deal of cash in legal fees.
Former Manchester fire chief and current District 2 councillor Dan Goonan, a long-time Beloin supporter, said he was disappointed with the way “this total factor has been dealt with from the start”.
“I don’t think this whole scenario had to play out this way,” Goonan said. “In my opinion, this could have been resolved more diplomatically, without wanting to spend taxpayers’ money. It feels like the council of mayors and councilmembers just forced our momentary rent for the homeless for very few reasons.
“While I have not received any letters outlining the mayor’s considerations and the reasons for his dismissal, I am concerned that our branch managers are worried about being next. I think we’re setting the bar pretty low. “
Goonan said he’s also concerned that Beloin’s ouster has severed the city’s relationships with local nonprofits and other agencies that perhaps wouldn’t want to be subject to “criticism from our board. “
“Homelessness is a primary factor in our community, and we want all of us to work together,” Goonan said. “I have a different point of view, having been a former department head. I’ve been on the bench a few times and it’s not easy. I worked for two other mayors, Gatsas and Craig, who had very different perspectives on politics in general.
“I’ve had disagreements with mayors and the board of trustees in public and private, but I never imagined that I would be disciplined or fired for the way I ran my branch. Having that result in the brain is not a smart thing to do as a branch. head. “
How it started
On April 2, Manchester councillors voted to order Beloin to work at the Beech Street homeless shelter, saying operations at the site required more “oversight”.
The 9-to-5 vote to approve the measure came despite Beloin’s fears that moving its office and branch to the shelter at 39 Beech St “would put a step backwards in a control system that already exists. “
“There are site directors, there are managers, there are group supervisors; they don’t want any other user to come along and confuse them,” Beloin said before the vote. “We’ve made massive strides in the last year that we deserve to be proud of and we deserve to not lose momentum where we’re going. And I know it’s very difficult for you to perceive what is the task that we have to do because it’s not your domain of work.
The comments angered Councilmember Dan O’Neil, who accused Beloin of talking to board members as if they were “models. “
Two days later, Beloin went on WFEA radio in Manchester with broadcaster Drew Cline to push for the vote, accusing the board members of political “posturing. “
Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais recently said officials would begin exploring the concept of having a nonprofit oversee shelter operations, saying he didn’t think cities would get into the “shelter business” or that Manchester would have the resources as a city to fund a shelter. long-term. -term.
Underneath the idea.
“It’s a smart concept because when we opened the shelter last year, under the management that I hired, it was a smart concept for me to run the shelter and set the tone for what it does in the way it offers services,” Beloin said. .
“It was a wonderful resolution because it was an experience I had and I was able to set things up the right way,” Beloin said.
“With the current administration, the way they need to handle shelter policy and operations or anything that has to do with homeless initiatives, it’s probably a lot safer in the hands of a nonprofit that’s more in tune with my thinking, and appreciates the concept of a low-barrier shelter and appreciates the concept that not all homeless people in the They will be able to get employment immediately and find housing.
When asked to give any recommendations to his eventual successor, Beloin said the biggest challenge is that existing systems are “broken and want to be fixed. “
“If someone comes in and thinks they’re going to design homelessness around broken systems, like Doorways or 211, or recovery-friendly workplaces, those are all projects that are essentially posters without boxes, and they’re not serving our community. .
“I think this board and this administration have already figured out who they’re recruiting and how they should be recruiting, and it’s no surprise that criminalizing the homeless is a huge priority,” he said.
“They won’t do well with this approach, so I guess we’ll have to see how it plays out. “
Beloin said he took the weekend to analyze the situation and clear his brain before looking for his next challenge.
“There’s a lot to let go of, but I’ll do it. In the other aspect of this weekend, I’m sure, I’ll look around and locate my next opportunity,” Beloin said. “I’m not worried about everything about my ability to find work, because the kind of paintings I do value my point of view and how I’ve been able to protect myself.
“I think, on the contrary, it’s been a wonderful exhibition for my next opportunity. “
pfeely@unionleader. com
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