Downtown Nashua Businesses See Improvement a Year After Raising Safety Concerns

NASHUA, NH – Last September, downtown business owners met with the Board of Aldermen (BoA) to discuss how the unhoused population downtown is impacting them and their business. Now a year later, downtown business owners say things have improved.

“We’ve seen things decrease from the first meeting that we had at the library,” Amber Morgan, Alderman-at-Large, and owner of Fortin Gage, said at a Downtown Improvement Committee meeting on September 11. “It’s pushed along in a good direction. People may not like how we got here but, overall, I think it’s a hell of a lot better.”

At last year’s meeting with the BoA, business owners reported incidents of aggression, drug use in and around their businesses, being verbally accosted, followed, broken windows, needles on the sidewalks, incidents of theft, and the presence of human waste.

Following that meeting, police patrols were reinstated downtown and aldermen passed an ordinance banning camping on public property the following month.

Nashua Police Officer Joseph Fusco – who attended the Sept. 11 Downtown Improvement Committee meeting along with Sgt. Chris Caron – said that the ordinance has been a “tremendous asset.”

“I think we’ve been doing a good job of trying to make it more user friendly downtown and moving people out who need to be moved out,” he said.

An area that they said continues to be an issue is outside of Saint Patrick’s Church. Marylou Blaisdell, owner of Design Wares, said one of the biggest issues is the customer perception of the unhoused people in front of the church, where she said there seems to be a lot of loitering.

While the church serves as a welcoming place for those who are unhoused with their Day Cafe, many will linger in the area after the Day Cafe hours.

Sign addressing unapproved behavior outside Saint Patrick’s Church. (Photo/Mya Blanchard)

Deputy Chief of Police Brian Kenney said they have received many complaints as crowds got larger and instances of camping and drug use occurred. There is now a sign on the property placed there by the church about “unapproved behavior” on the site. Kenney said they will be meeting with the new pastor to revisit conversations they had close to two years ago with the previous pastor about how they can work together.

“It’s going to be our next conversation that we have, but overall, I think we’re in a good place,” Fusco said. “We’ve been moving people along and connecting a lot more with services too.”

As far as “moving people along,” Kenney said that anyone has a right to spend their time downtown, and that it only becomes an issue when there’s congregating or camping on property.

Fouad Mahfuz, owner of PRG Rugs, said that he likes the way he has seen the police treat and interact with unhoused individuals downtown.

“I don’t like the idea of a police state downtown just because we have a handful of people who need help and that are perceived as scary or not positive for our downtown,” he said. “It’s positive vibes. It’s not somebody who is out to put people in jail, or intimidate, or push people aside.”

“I think this is important to have you guys downtown talking to people, communicating, and I think it’s going to help overall,” he added