(L to R): Hayden Maroun, Madelyn Maroun, Chris Maroun, and Andy DuBois of Miracle Farms present a check in support of Harriman Hill III

​Miracle Farms of Moultonborough purchased $100,000 in CDFA Tax Credits to support our latest workforce housing project, Harriman Hill III in Wolfeboro.
 
As the Lakes Region’s premier full-service landscape and property maintenance company, Miracle Farms employs a sizable and growing team. With their focus on caring for their employees, they know first-hand the significant need for workforce housing in the area. We are grateful for their partnership and support which makes it possible for us to finish the 30 new affordable apartments at Harriman Hill III by this summer.
 
If your business would like to partner with us to create workforce housing, please Contact Carmen Lorentz at [email protected] today.

Construction progress on the Gale School in Belmont

Although we started construction on the rehabilitation of the historic Gale School in Belmont last summer, we continued to work through the fall to finalize all the financing for the project.
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We are happy to report that on December 18, we closed our New Markets Tax Credits deal with Evernorth and Capital One, putting in place the final piece of the financing stack and ensuring the project will be completed in late spring.

​It was such a pleasure to interview Judi Donnelly, a resident of our Harriman Hill apartment complex since 2014. Judi’s story illustrates how workforce housing benefits retirees. As our local workforce ages in place, it is important that we provide quality housing options where people can afford to live out their retirement in comfort and dignity. Read Judi’s story here.

As the year draws to a close, we are reflecting on the ways in which supporters like you helped us make a dent in the housing crisis. This year, you helped us:

• Finish construction of Bay Street Apartments in Laconia, which now provides 12 units of supportive housing for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness.
• Finish construction of Jameson Street Apartments in Laconia, which offers 3 units of supportive housing for people with developmental disabilities.
• Break ground on Harriman Hill III in Wolfeboro, which will provide 30 units of affordable housing.

But we still need your help to finish Harriman Hill III!

Please consider making your tax-deductible donation to LRCD by December 31st to help us purchase the appliances needed to put the finishing touches on this project so people can move in next summer without delay.
 
We are so close to finishing this project – your support today will help us get there!

We are incredibly grateful for operating support from two funds at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation: the Lakes Region Community Fund and the Chandler Family Fund.
 
Operating support helps us pay our dedicated and talented staff to do the difficult work of siting, designing, permitting, funding, and overseeing construction of affordable housing.
 
Thank you to these generous donors of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for supporting the work we do. ​

​Check out this new report from the Urban Institute:
 
The federal government supports the US housing market through dozens of initiatives administered by several agencies—in total, spending hundreds of billions of dollars each year. These initiatives support over 15 million home-owning and renter households by subsidizing housing costs, reducing housing tax burdens, securing mortgages, and incentivizing new housing development. Together, federal housing supports form the scaffolding that holds up the national housing market.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LRCD Files Complaint Against the Town of Ashland Over Denial of Mill Pond Applications
Lakes Region Community Developers (LRCD) filed an appeal in Grafton County Superior Court, seeking to reverse the recent denial by the Ashland Planning Board of LRCD’s subdivision and site plan applications for the Village at Mill Pond housing development. In the same complaint, LRCD filed claims for damages based on the Town’s violations of LRCD’s right to substantive due process under State and Federal law and based on the Town’s violations of the Federal Fair Housing Act.
The Village at Mill Pond, proposed at 35 Mill Pond Lane in Ashland, is designed to offer 76 units of affordable rental housing, as well as four single-family lots to be developed in partnership with Pemi Valley Habitat for Humanity.
“There are news stories almost every week about how average people can no longer afford to live in New Hampshire,” said LRCD Executive Director Carmen Lorentz. “We need 3,000 more units of affordable housing in the Lakes Region by 2040 to achieve a more balanced housing market. The Mill Pond project is part of the solution, and we remain focused on our mission to create affordable housing opportunities for people who live and work in the Lakes Region.”
The 86-page complaint details the Planning Board’s improper conduct during a 12-month long review of LRCD’s applications, including:

1. Forcing LRCD to follow an ever-shifting, extremely cumbersome process to obtain commentary from Town Department heads.
2. Failing to timely notice the applications following their formal submission, and refusing to schedule a special meeting in order to comply with the statutory timeframe within which the Planning Board was required to render a completeness determination.
3. Inaccurately accusing LRCD of failing to provide information and of hiding information.
4. Refusing to open the public hearing on the applications following the Board’s completeness determination, and refusing to allow LRCD to make a presentation on the applications until nearly three months after it submitted them.
5. Repeatedly discussing the applications at meetings during which no public hearing was noticed, including on one occasion engaging in an in-depth discussion with a third-party engineer regarding the applications without notice to LRCD and despite LRCD having asked the Board to refrain from engaging in this practice.
6. Allowing a member of the Selectboard to make presentations advocating against the project, including at one meeting where LRCD was not present because the project was not scheduled to be discussed.
7. Asserting the property was not zoned Commercial, which allows for multi-family use by right, when the property is, in fact, zoned Commercial.
8. Denying a waiver that LRCD requested despite the Town’s own third-party engineer opining that the waiver request was reasonable.
9. Withholding documentation relative to the project from LRCD.
10. Allowing the Town Manager to speak against the project during a public hearing on the applications.
11. After a 12-month review, suddenly identifying a provision of the Town’s Site Plan Regulations which LRCD had indisputably complied with, and inaccurately using that provision to deny the applications.
12. Including inaccurate information in both the meeting minutes and the Notice of Decision in relation to the denial. 

 The complaint was assigned case number 215-2025-CV-00347 and was transferred to the Hillsborough County Superior Court, Northern District Land Use Review Docket. 

Generally, IRA distributions are taxable, but qualified charitable distributions remain tax-free if sent directly to a qualified charity by the trustee.

Laconia Area Community Land Trust, Inc dba Lakes Region Community Developers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization (Federal Tax ID 02-0426348) that can accept tax-free qualified charitable distributions from an IRA.

IRA owners age 70½ and older can make tax-free charitable donations directly from their IRA. 

IRA owners age 73 or older must make a Required Minimum Distribution from their IRA each year, and qualified charitable distributions count toward this required minimum.
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Any IRA owner who wishes to make a qualified charitable distribution for 2025 should contact their IRA trustee this fall to ensure they have enough time to complete the transaction before the end of the year.

Contractors are making good progress on the painstaking work of selective interior demolition, lead paint abatement, and asbestos abatement involved in the redevelopment of the Gale School. These photos give you a sense of the care and time that is involved in this work. All renovations are being conducted in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for historic rehabilitation. ​

Lots of important news about affordable housing over the summer. Here is a quick run-down, in case you missed any of these.​

• Governor Ayotte signs a package of new laws to help address NH’s housing crisis.
  
  
  
• NH is the 12th most expensive state to rent housing and $27 per hour wage needed to afford a one-bedroom,
  
  
  
• Bipartisan ROAD to Housing Bill Approved by Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

We are loving the ongoing transformation of 11 Jameson St, Laconia into three units of supportive housing for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities, in partnership with Lakes Region Community Services! This project is on track to be completed in September.

NH Housing and NH Community Development Finance Authority provided funding for this project.
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Hollis Construction Management is the contractor.

For 25 years, we have been a chartered member of NeighborWorks America, a network of 250 community development organizations across the country. NeighborWorks funding and training helps us carry out our mission here on the ground in the Lakes Region. It’s inspiring to learn about the network’s impact on the nation’s housing crisis last year and to know that we are part of this effort:

• 431,600 individuals and families assisted with affordable housing and counseling
  
• $4.6 billion invested in creating new homeowners
  
• 211,900 affordable rental homes owned and/or managed
  

 Click here to read NeighborWorks’ annual report. ​

​Residents at Lochmere Meadows in Tilton and River’s Edge Apartments in Laconia did some spring cleaning outdoors to make the grounds of their apartment communities more enjoyable for everyone. Both groups did a great job!