Faith leaders, activists and homeless people held a rally Tuesday afternoon asking Governor Maggie Hassan to stop the state from evicting people from camping on public land.
“Everybody just say it with me. Give back the tents. One, two, three go. Give back the tents! Give back the tents. We need to give back those tents…”
Nearly 100 people attended the rally at the State House protesting the recent evictions of homeless people from at least two downtown Concord locations.
“The two biggest things that the homeless community has to deal with is the fact that nobody understands us and nobody will give us a chance.”
Sean Lambert is a 20-year-old homeless man who had been staying in a campsite near the Everett Arena. He says when he first got there the campsite was littered with trash.
“Just six inches deep. You could kick your foot through all the trash and kick trash everywhere, but we cleaned it up. We did everything we could to make it so nobody had a reason to throw us out.”
Last week, an ACLU lawyer representing three evicted homeless men filed a lawsuit against the state. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.