Group seeks variance for congregate housing at former Boy Scouts headquarters

Jan. 9—A New Hampshire organization will go before Manchester's zoning board this week seeking a variance to use the former Boy Scouts of America headquarters on Holt Avenue as a group home for as many as 20 inmates coming out of the New Hampshire Women's Prison.

Dismas Home of New Hampshire currently runs a state-licensed 90-day, low-intensity residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation treatment and reentry program for previously incarcerated women out of 102 Fourth St. on the city's West Side.

The organization has applied for a variance to use property at 517 Holt Ave. as congregate housing, with plans for 20 beds for residents, five offices for staff, and additional conference, treatment and meeting spaces.

Ben Adams lives on Waverly Street, across the street from 571 Holt. He said he was caught off guard when he received notice of Dismas Home's petition for a variance.

"This type of facility will devastate the home values in this tiny neighborhood," Adams said. "I think it's going to completely upend the character of the neighborhood."

The 10,800-square-foot building was built by Daniel Webster Council in 1982, and housed the group's headquarters until 2021.

The structure sits on 2.16 acres in an industrial zone — hence the need for a variance to operate congregate housing there — but the surrounding neighborhood is heavily residential.

Daniel Webster Council listed the former headquarters site last year for $1.3 million. The property is being sold to help meet the council's $3.5 million obligation to the national Boy Scouts of America and BSA's $2.46 billion settlement related to sexual abuse lawsuits.

The council's board of directors agreed to put the property up for sale in December 2021. Council members then waited for the national settlement to be agreed upon and Chapter 11 bankruptcy resolved. The settlement agreement was finalized in March 2023, the bankruptcy settled the following month.

In its application, Dismas Home says its proposal wouldn't alter the "essential character of the neighborhood."

"The applicant's use will transform an aging, depreciating and unattended building and property into a well-kept, updated, fully monitored and staffed (24/7) facility and in doing so make a largely abandoned site into a much safer one," the application reads. "With the addition of not only, around the clock, staff on site to the property but also safety enhancements to the building and property, all while leaving the property largely as-is."

Adams says he feels characterizing the site as abandoned is "disingenuous at best."

Before the Boys Scouts consolidated their operations to Camp Carpenter, Adams says, the property was consistently maintained during all four seasons.

"The Boy Scouts plowed the property, pruned the bushes there," Adams said. There's also a cell tower that is regularly maintained."

The Dismas Home concept calls for using volunteers from local colleges or religious groups to prepare meals, eat with residents and work with them to enhance social skills and find jobs.

Inmates who enter the program need a recommendation from the prison warden and a parole officer. They are required to look for a job, pay nominal rent, perform chores and eat dinner together. A house director performs random drug testing, and use of drugs or alcohol is prohibited.

Cheryll Andrews, executive director of Dismas Home of New Hampshire, says the organization has been operating successfully in Manchester for eight years.

"We are good neighbors," said Andrews. "There are too few residential trauma-informed treatment services for women. We help women heal and reunite with their families, find meaningful work, and stable safe affordable housing. We offer women who have the courage to change the time, space, and tools to make it happen.

"Everyone in Manchester says they want to do something about crime and homelessness — Dismas Home is actually doing it."

Dismas Home says it has outgrown its current West Side location. Representatives of both New Hampshire Catholic Charities and the NH Coalition of Recovery Residences (NHCORR) have submitted letters supporting the plans to expand to 571 Holt Ave.

"Housing for women is needed in Manchester," writes Kim Bock, executive director of NHCORR, in her letter of support. "It is rare to see Manchester certified recovery residences accepting new applications. This is clear evidence that there is a need for more recovery housing in Manchester and surrounding towns."

Adams says he and others in the tight-knit Waverly Street neighborhood aren't "naive," and knew the Boy Scout property would be sold one day.

"The property was released by bankruptcy proceedings for sale this past summer, and the community was informed that the target buyers would be users of office-space or maybe a daycare," Adams said. "This is not that."

Adams plans on raising his concerns when the application goes before the Zoning Board of Adjustment this Thursday at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

"We thought maybe more townhomes would be put in there, but to suggest a congregate facility?" Adams said. "My point of contention to the board members is once you ring that bell you can't unring it. If a variance is approved for that kind of occupancy, it applies to whoever owns the property, so we lose control over what (it) may become.

"I'm just raising the issue of is this the best neighborhood for that remedy to be brought. My feeling is no."