Latest News - September

Grant from Volunteer NH

We are excited to announce that LRCD has received a third year of funding from Volunteer NH to continue building our capacity to recruit and support LRCD tenants to volunteer in their neighborhoods.
 
To date, LRCD has received a total of $70,000 in federal Volunteer Generation Fund (VGF) grants provided by AmeriCorps via Volunteer NH. VGF’s intention is to strengthen the ability of nonprofit organizations to recruit and retain volunteers to meet critical community needs. LRCD uses this funding to help pay for a second full-time resident services coordinator.

VGF funding has doubled our capacity to support our tenants as volunteers, and the results have exceeded expectations! Over the last two years, we have recruited and supported over 200 tenant volunteers who have done over 1,000 hours of volunteer work in their neighborhoods! This includes building and maintaining community gardens, organizing fun activities for youth, and neighborhood beautification.
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Partner Spotlight: UNH Cooperative Extension

UNH Cooperative Extension is a statewide organization that provides services, training, and education to NH residents with the goal of creating stronger, vibrant, and engaged communities. LRCD has forged a strong partnership with Extension to offer wellness programming for tenants at our properties.
 
Some of the most popular Extension programs with our tenants have been Cooking Matters, Walking with Ease, Grocery Store Tours, and Chronic Pain Management. In addition, this summer we partnered with Extension to create a 10-bed community garden at our Ames Brook Apartments in Ashland. With funding for building supplies and plants provided by Bank of NH, Extension staff advised tenants on the design of the garden and what to plant and also taught them how to cook healthy meals using the vegetables they’ve grown.
 
We are grateful for our partnership with UNH Cooperative Extension. Their programs enhance our efforts to improve the health and well-being of our tenants, which enables them to maintain housing stability, work with their neighbors to address community needs, and build their own pathways to economic security. A big thank you to all of the Extension staff and volunteers we have worked with over the years!

Gale School Project

Another huge thank you to Grappone Automotive! They made yet another pledge of $25,000 this month, in addition to the $25,000 they pledged in July AND the $15,000 they gave last year.

Resilient Buildings Group, another great partner of ours, just pledged $10,000 this week. Thank you!

We have $185,000 left to sell before March 31, 2023. Please contact us today if your NH based business is interested in using NH's unique community development tax credit program.

Zoning Board Stops Northfield Project

Sadly, LRCD is no longer pursuing our proposed 66-unit workforce housing development on Route 140 in Northfield, after being denied twice by the Zoning Board on our application for a special exception.

In the past, we’ve chosen not to publicize projects that failed to move forward. In an effort to educate our community about how difficult it is to develop workforce housing, we are changing that practice.
 
The Northfield project is a great illustration of the barrier that zoning ordinances and lack of support by local town officials in many towns in the Lakes Region present for affordable housing. READ MORE...