Introducing the NEW & IMPROVED Harvey HeightsWe are proud to announce the completion of LRCD's rehabilitation of Harvey Heights Apartments in Meredith. The LRCD team worked for five years to assemble the $5 million in financing needed for improvements. We achieved completion at the end of 2022, bringing Harvey Heights and its 25-units up to our healthy housing standards by improving life safety systems, indoor air quality, accessibility, energy efficiency, and aesthetics. Please enjoy this short virtual tour of Harvey Heights! Eviction Prevention at LRCDOne of the ways LRCD works to address the homelessness crisis is through eviction prevention. Here at LRCD, eviction prevention means pro-active, targeted services and financial assistance to families who are at-risk of being evicted. Our goal is to stop homelessness before it happens. This is a very cost-effective way to address the crisis of homelessness. Our intentional focus on eviction prevention started with the pandemic because we faced an immediate crisis with many tenants out of work or unable to work due to illness or lack of child care. We began earlier and more coordinated outreach to tenants who showed up on the collections list, in collaboration with property management. We helped tenants fill out applications to the federally funded NH Emergency Rental Assistance Program (NHERAP), which provided money to pay rental arrearages, past due utility balances, and in some cases, three months of rent going forward. In cases where someone was not eligible for NHERAP, we provided direct financial assistance from a small eviction prevention fund that we established in 2020. We find this approach to be highly effective. We are very proud to say that over the course of the entire pandemic, we have not evicted anyone who is engaged with our resident services program for non-payment of rent. In 2022, we provided eviction prevention services to 207 of our tenants and direct financial assistance to 26 of those tenants.  When NHERAP ended in October 2022, our tenants were left with few places to turn for financial assistance, so demand on our small eviction prevention fund increased dramatically. In the past five months, we’ve provided $21,000 in financial assistance; whereas during the entire year of 2021, we only provided $14,012 in assistance. Please consider donating to our eviction prevention fund today. Between ongoing pandemic instability and inflation, the situation is dire for many of our tenants. Your donation will have a big impact on a local family. Thank you. Housing Champion of the Month: Northpoint Engineering“We know first-hand the great work that LRCD does in the community to address the housing crisis. We’re pleased to support an organization with a great track record doing such important work.” — Kevin Leonard, Principal Engineer of Northpoint Engineering  We need the financial support of our local business community in order to produce more units of affordable housing for essential workers. Most housing developments that we undertake cost us $150,000 to $300,000 before we can get a shovel in the ground. Email CLorentz@LRcommunitydevelopers.org today if your business would like to be a Housing Champion.  Legislative UpdateThe NH Legislature has been busy with a slew of housing related bills this year. Two bills with a potentially big impact are making their way through the NH Senate.
As part of the Housing Action NH coalition, we expressed support for the housing funding bill and urged lawmakers to consider the following improvements to the bill:
SB 231 was heard by the Senate Finance Committee on February 21, but has yet to be voted on at the committee level. Comments are closed.
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193 Court Street, Laconia, NH 03246 • 603.524.0747
© 2019 Lakes Region Community Developers