Latest News - January 2023

Faces of Affordable Housing: Kyle

Kylie Goss is a tenant at Lochmere Meadows, an affordable housing complex in Tilton developed by Lakes Region Community Developers (LRCD). Kylie grew up in the Lakes Region and has been here her entire life, except for one year she spent living in Florida.

When Kylie was younger, she struggled with substance use disorder. She is proud that she has been in recovery for eight years now.
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She explains, “what got me out of it was finding out I was going to have a child. I tried a couple times to get sober, but nothing worked until I found out I was pregnant.” She was living in Florida at the time. 

As soon as she learned a baby was on the way, Kylie packed up and headed back home to the Lakes Region to be closer to family. Read Kylie's full story...

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Thank You North Branch Construction

Not only is North Branch Construction an outstanding construction management company (they did Harvey Heights in Meredith and Ames Brook in Ashland), they are also very generous!
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North Branch recently donated $2,000 to LRCD out of their safety fund, which is kind of like a swear jar but for on-the-job safety violations. This is one of the many ways they focus on worker safety. In addition to getting employees and subcontractors to pay close attention to safety rules, they donate the money to a non-profit at the end of the year!

What a great company!

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Legislative Preview

A new legislative session is underway in Concord. Over the next few months, state lawmakers will wade through over 800 proposed bills. In addition, the 2023-24 budget development process is picking up steam with the current budget ending June 30th. All eyes are on Concord to see what policies and funding levels are proposed for affordable housing. Our friends at Housing Action NH provide a great overview here.

Key issues that LRCD is concerned about:

• Funding for the state’s Affordable Housing Fund: In the last budget, lawmakers included a one-time appropriation of $25 million for the Fund, plus an annual carve-out of $5 million in real estate transfer tax revenue. This resulted in an unprecedented total of $35 million in state funding being set aside for affordable housing in the two-year budget. This was significant because New Hampshire has historically not invested much state money in housing; instead relying on federal funding to subsidize the development of affordable housing.
  
  New Hampshire’s Affordable Housing Fund is important to developers. It provides NH Housing with flexible funding they can use to stretch the federal resources they administer to facilitate development of more affordable housing units, including much-needed supportive housing for people of extremely low income. Our hope is that state lawmakers invest even more in the Affordable Housing Fund in the next budget since the housing and homelessness crisis continues unabated. More resources are needed to make a dent in the problem.

 

• Funding for homeless services: We will also be watching the budget numbers for the Housing – Shelter Program within the NH Department of Health and Human Services, which is the part of the state budget that provides funding to homeless services providers across the state. In light of the significant increases in unsheltered homelessness statewide during the pandemic, we are hopeful that the state will invest more funding in these critical organizations and services.

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LRCD Awarded $20,000 from Rural LISC & Clayton Homes

​Lakes Region Community Developers (LRCD) is proud to announce they were recently awarded a $20,000 grant from Rural LISC and Clayton Homes to support LRCD’s healthy housing initiative in their scattered site rental units in Laconia.
 
The grant will support LRCD’s ongoing efforts to ensure these units meet healthy housing standards. This initiative is focused on 33 of LRCD’s multi-family buildings in Laconia, most of which are 50-100 years old. Together, these buildings contain a total of 80 affordable apartments.
 
With this grant from Rural LISC and Clayton Homes, LRCD can continue to invest in the improvement of these buildings; something they’ve been focused on for the last ten years. Despite significant renovations in many of these units, there are still improvements to be made in order for LRCD to meet their own high standards. During the past two years, LRCD began to systematically conduct lead testing and abatement to ensure all of their units are Certified Lead Safe. They also began performing energy audits in these older buildings to identify additional energy efficiency improvements to save their tenants money on their utility bills.
 
LRCD Executive Director, Carmen Lorentz says, “We are so grateful for the support of Rural LISC and Clayton Homes. This grant helps us achieve our vision where everyone in the Lakes Region lives in a home that supports good physical, financial, and mental health.”