We exceeded our goal in the recent crowdfunding campaign for Compass House! Thanks to the generosity of 20 individuals, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation - Colonel Armand G. Auger Fund,  Eversource, and Nesseralla and Company, Compass House will be fully furnished and ready to open its doors in February.

SAVE THE DATE

Compass House Ribbon Cutting
Wednesday, February 5th
1:00 pm
658 Union Ave., Laconia

Light refreshments, tours, and a brief program featuring remarks by:
NH Housing Finance Authority
Horizons Counseling Center
Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region

The Hodges Companies has  generously pledged to purchase $22,000 of our CDFA tax credits to support our Harriman HIll Homes development in Wolfeboro. Harriman Hill Homes will be a development of 20 affordable starter homes for families who make between 75% and 120% of median income (roughly $52,000 to $83,000 for a family of four).

LRCD still needs to sell $128,000 in NH business tax credits by March 30, 2020 in order to build Harriman Hill Homes, a development of 20 affordable starter homes in Wolfeboro. If your business pays the NH Business Profits or Business Enterprise tax, you can direct a significant portion of your tax obligation to this project rather than sending it to Concord. Click here for more information.

Our renovation project at Ames Brook Apartments in Ashland is  now 50% complete.  As of the first week in January, 14 households will be in newly renovated units. 

The residents at River's Edge are getting into the holiday spirit with a door decorating contest. See the winners below.

• Can Christmas wrapping paper go in the recycling bin?
  • No, wrapping paper cannot be recycled because it is often laminated with plastic, foil or other non-paper materials. Some wrapping paper is very thin and contains few good quality fibers so is not suitable for recycling. Either save and re-use or dispose of it in your household waste bin.
• Can I recycle Tissue Paper?
  • Tissue paper is made with very low-grade paper and is not recyclable in most communities.
• Can you recycle Pringles Tubes?
  • No, while 50 percent of each Pringles can is made from recycled material, these cardboard, foil-lined, and metal cans are, unfortunately, non-recyclable.
• Should I choose Plastic, Aluminum, or Glass bottles?
  • The transportation of glass bottles requires significantly more energy than their lightweight counterparts. Glass is fragile, too, so shippers can't pack glass containers into a truck as tightly as aluminum and plastic containers. Also, recycling glass is difficult and costly. Aluminum cans have a higher recycling rate and more recycled content than competing package types. Aluminum cans are far more valuable than glass or plastic, helping make municipal recycling programs financially viable and effectively subsidizing the recycling of less valuable materials in the bin.
• Can I recycle paper towels, napkins, or tissues?

If they are unused. Dirty paper towels, napkins, or tissues should not be put in your recycling bin.

Lakes Region Community Developers is currently renovating 658 Union Avenue in Laconia to transform it into a group home for women in recovery called Compass House. We need to raise $3,000 by December 15th to close a gap in the project budget for furnishings. Your donation today will ensure that Compass House opens as scheduled in February 2020. Click here to support our crowdfunding campaign.

This week, we wish Kara LaSalle, our Real Estate Development Project Manager, the best of luck as she moves on to her new job as Acquisitions Officer at Northern New England Housing Investment Fund. We wanted to share Kara’s farewell message with you:

Wolfeboro residents at Harriman Hill enjoyed pumpkin carving and cider this October.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see our new space on Court Street! The support of the community means so much.

When it snows, it gives the ground a great opportunity to absorb fresh, healthy water from the atmosphere. Plants need nitrogen to grow and be healthy - and there's a lot of nitrogen up in the air! So when it rains and snows, it's bringing some of that nitrogen with it to naturally feed the soil beneath. Be sure to take advantage of this nutrient-rich water by collecting some to give to your indoor plants!

BEFORE                                                                                              AFTER

North Branch Construction has been hard at work since July on the $4 million rehabilitation project at our 40-unit complex in Ashland, now called Ames Brook Apartments. Renovations on five of the 40 units are now complete. Interior renovations include new flooring, new cabinets, new energy-efficient appliances, and completely renovated bathrooms. Exterior renovations are also underway. The parking lot has been repaved, new siding and windows are currently being installed, and new porches are being constructed.
 
This rehab project will bring Ames Brook up to our healthy housing standards by improving life safety systems, indoor air quality, accessibility, and energy efficiency.

On September 25th, the New Hampshire House and Senate passed a two-year, nearly $13 billion compromise state budget after Governor Sununu vetoed their first effort back in June. The Governor signed the compromise budget the same day.
 
The final budget includes significant new investments to address New Hampshire’s housing crisis, including:
 

• $5 million for the state’s Affordable Housing Fund, plus a new $5 million per year real estate transfer tax carve-out for the Affordable Housing Fund.
• The first major increase for homeless services in over 20 years ($2 million for eviction prevention; $1 million for case management; $1 million for rapid re-housing; and $400,000 for homeless youth outreach).
• The establishment of a new Housing Appeals Board, which provides an alternative, expedited process to appeal a decision rendered by a local land-use board.
• A new $3 million lead remediation fund to help landlords pay for lead remediation required under a new law aimed at protecting more children from lead poisoning.

 
Thank you to everyone who contacted their representatives or senator to express support for these legislative priorities. You made a difference!

Come visit the new Court Street Neighborhood Center and LRCD Headquarters!
 
Thursday, November 14
4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
193 Court Street, Laconia
 
Hosted in conjunction with the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce as part of their Business After Hours event series.

Energy-efficiency is important to us and to the people we serve. It’s not just about being “green.” Census and federal energy data show that energy expenditures by low-income households in the Lakes Region eat up 34% to 37% of household income. Unfortunately, this means that there are many families in our region who probably have to choose between paying their electric bill and buying groceries or medicine.
 
Our Pine Hill Solar project in Laconia will eliminate that issue completely for 12 families. Thanks to a generous gift from the Thomas W. Haas Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, we were able to complete a solar feasibility study for all of our scattered site properties in Laconia. The study showed that six of the nine Pine Hill duplexes are excellent candidates for solar PV systems.
 
Pine Hill was one of the first properties that we redeveloped in Laconia back in the 1990s.  At present, the families at Pine Hill pay for electricity separately from their rent. After we install the solar system, we will be able to include electricity in the monthly rent.
 
Roof repairs are now complete and the solar panels will begin to be installed.
 
We are extremely grateful to the Thomas W. Haas Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the New Hampshire Public Utility Commission, and Mainstay Technologies for providing the funds to make this project possible.

Lakes Region Community Developers (LRCD), Horizons Counseling Center, and Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region are partnering to create Compass House, a group home for women in recovery. Compass House will be located at 658 Union Avenue, Laconia and will accommodate up to eight women at a time.
 
LRCD is renovating the building, which previously served as its headquarters. Horizons will operate Compass House with support from Navigating Recovery. Renovations at Compass House are underway by Martini Northern. Construction is scheduled to be complete early this winter.
 
Compass House will provide a congregate living environment for women who have completed a residential treatment program for substance use disorder. Guests at Compass House must not have a household income over 80% of the area median income. Horizons plans to start accepting applications for Compass House this winter.

Financing for Compass House is provided by New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority via a special appropriation that the New Hampshire Legislature made to the state’s Affordable Housing Fund in 2017, specifically to increase housing options for people in recovery from substance use disorder or those experiencing a mental illness. The New Hampshire Women’s Foundation also provided a grant for furnishings at Compass House.

For more details about Compass House click here.

We are excited to introduce you to Kristy Pearce, our new Resident Services Coordinator. (We bid a fond farewell to Kerri Lowe this summer, as she moved on to head up the new Adverse Childhood Experience Response Team at the Family Resource Center.)

Kristy earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and her Masters in Social Work from the University of New Hampshire.

Her background has been working with adults and children in New Hampshire since 2012. She is coming to LRCD from HealthFirst Family Care Center where she has worked as a Counselor and Case Manager. Kristy has extensive experience in connecting families to local and state resources to help them thrive.

Come visit the new Court Street Neighborhood Center and LRCD Headquarters!
 
Thursday, November 14
4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
193 Court Street, Laconia
 
Hosted in conjunction with the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce as part of their Business After Hours event series.

NGM Insurance Company has made a generous pledge to purchase $100,000 of our CDFA tax credits to support our Harriman Hill Homes development in Wolfeboro. Harriman Hill Homes will be a development of 20 affordable starter homes for families who make between 75% and 120% of median income (roughly $52,000 to $83,000 for a family of four).
 
The proceeds of our tax credit sales, coupled with grant funding, will help offset the cost of the road, water, and sewer infrastructure for the development so that we can keep the home prices affordable for our target market. Thank you to NGM Insurance Company for helping us build desperately needed starter homes in the Lakes Region!

Instead of raking the leaves and gathering them in trash bags to be collected by the garbage man, why not put them to good use? Fallen leaves are great for using as natural mulch. Not only will using them save you money from buying mulch, but they will also help to enrich your soil, lock in moisture and protect your plants from the cold temperatures of the fast-approaching winter season.

When using leaves as a mulch, make sure to shred them first with a mulching mower, shredder or leaf blower on the vacuum setting. A light layer of small, thin leaves applied without first being shredded is fine, but for the most part, shredding is important. Adding too thick of a layer of leaves can block air and water from penetrating the ground. Thick layers of leaves can also do the exact opposite—locking in too much moisture, potentially damaging the plants that need well-drained soil or are susceptible to rot and other fungal diseases.

Once a layer of small and/or shredded leaves is applied to your beds, you can add the remainder to your compost bin, pack them up in bags for spring mulch use or you can dispose of the rest according to your city or town’s guidelines, such as raking them to the curb for collection, bagging them for pickup or delivery them to a municipal compost pile. You can also use a mulching mower to chop up a thin layer to be left on your lawn as a nitrogen-rich fertilizer.

Happy raking!

Lakes Region Community Developers (LRCD), Horizons Counseling Center, and Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region are partnering to create Compass House, a group home for women in recovery. Compass House will be located at 658 Union Avenue, Laconia and will accommodate up to eight women at a time.
 
LRCD will renovate the building, which previously served as its headquarters. Horizons will operate Compass House with support from Navigating Recovery. Renovations at Compass House are underway by Martini Northern. Construction is scheduled to be complete early this winter.
 
Compass House will provide a congregate living environment for women who have completed a residential treatment program for substance use disorder. Guests at Compass House must not have a household income over 80% of the area median income. Horizons plans to start accepting applications for Compass House this winter.
 
“This project is a great example of the work we seek to do under our expanded mission,” said Carmen Lorentz, LRCD’s Executive Director. “We have almost 30 years of real estate development experience, and we are pleased to put this expertise to work to meet a wider range of housing and community development needs in the region, in partnership with other organizations.”
 
Throughout its history, LRCD has focused on developing rental homes for families of low income. It now also develops affordable starter homes and community facilities such as Compass House.
 
“Many women in recovery in our community, especially women of low income, do not have access to a safe, affordable, and supportive housing option,” said Jacqui Abikoff, Executive Director of Horizons Counseling Center. “Compass House will fill this long-standing gap in recovery supports in the Lakes Region.”
 
Horizons Counseling Center has provided quality outpatient substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders treatment and recovery services in the Lakes Region since 1987.  Horizons currently manages the Belknap County Recovery Court and provides substance use disorder treatment and case management services for the Corrections Opportunity for Recovery and Education (C.O.R.E) program at the Belknap County Department of Corrections.
 
Each guest at Compass House will be paired with a trained recovery coach from Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region. The guest will work with her coach to create, follow, and update a recovery wellness plan to serve as a roadmap for her as she moves toward independent living.
 
“When a person in recovery lives in a supportive environment like Compass House, she is much more likely to stay in recovery,” said Daisy Pierce, Executive Director of Navigating Recovery. “Compass House will help us ensure that women in recovery in the Lakes Region have access to this critical recovery support.”
 
Financing for Compass House is provided by New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority via a special appropriation that the New Hampshire Legislature made to the state’s Affordable Housing Fund in 2017, specifically to increase housing options for people in recovery from substance use disorder or those experiencing a mental illness. The New Hampshire Women’s Foundation also provided a grant for furnishings at Compass House.

Photo caption: (L to R) Carmen Lorentz, Executive Director of Lakes Region Community Developers; Jacqui Abikoff, Executive Director of Horizons Counseling Center; and Daisy Pierce, Executive Director of Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region stand in front of the future home of Compass House at 658 Union Ave, Laconia.