Bolstered by a letter of support from the Laconia City Council, Genesis Behavioral Health has submitted its application to use the former Laconia Federal Building and officials there are "cautiously optimistic" that they may prevail in a three-way contest for the North Main Street structure.

Along with Belknap County and the Lakes Region Community Services Council, Genesis wants to use the federal building which earlier this year was declared surplus by the federal government and is being disposed of by the General Services Administration. Each of the groups has formally asked the GSA to award it the federal building.

By federal law, a surplus building first must be offered to groups that work with the homeless, then to those that support public health initiatives, then to local governments for public use and finally, if there are no takers in those categories, to private parties.

Genesis is in the first and highest tier because it offers programs that help prevent people from becoming homeless. The organization had until Nov. 16 to file its application — it did so on Nov. 12 — and both the GSA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are now reviewing it.

Kristen Welch, Genesis' public relations and communications manager, said she expects an answer from the federal government within 25 business days of its application-filing deadline.

"We're hoping for the best. We feel we submitted a very strong application and we hope they (HHS and GSA) feel the same way."

Thirty-nine percent of people who are homeless have some sort of mental health problem, she added, "and our services are really critical in the prevention of people becoming homeless."

Genesis currently operates two federal Housing and Urban Development housing support programs for people who are homeless and have mental illness.

If it were to get the federal building, Genesis would close its facilities on Church and Main streets with the idea of selling them to a private entity. In that way the properties could generate property tax revenue for the city.

Genesis officials previously said they would achieve greater efficiencies if the agency were housed in the federal building and they also reassured a skittish city council that there would be no housing or overnight stays.

When the federal building was declared surplus, the council unanimously supported sending a letter to the GSA urging it to sell the building to a private party, saying a homeless shelter would hurt an already economically-challenged downtown. Gradually, however, after hearing from Genesis, the county and the Community Services Council, the city council altered its position and supplied both Genesis and the Community Services Council with letters saying it supported their applications.

The Community Services Council applied for the federal building because, with the closure of the N.H. Department of Corrections' Lakes Region Facility, it is losing its administrative offices which were on the prison grounds.

The county has applied to purchase the federal building, which is an even lower use priority, and is exploring how to raise the application to a higher level.

Christopher Boothby, chair of the Belknap County Commission, has told the council that the county is looking at the federal building as part of a comprehensive facilities plan but he did not get into specific uses.