​Despite the well-documented need for affordable housing, we are encountering stiff opposition to our proposed project at 17 Bay Street in Laconia. The project would clean up a burned-out building and create 12 efficiency apartments for individuals with less than $20,000 in income who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.
 
Lakes Region Mental Health Center (LRMHC) would provide supportive services to the tenants, including benefits counseling, financial management, independent living skills training, healthcare management, employment services, and crisis intervention.
 
LRMHC serves thousands of Lakes Region residents every year. Among their existing clients, approximately 100 people lack stable housing. These are the people to whom the Bay Street apartments would be marketed.
 
This type of housing is called supportive housing because it combines affordable housing with supportive services to help ensure tenants are successful at maintaining their housing. Evidence-based practices to address homelessness include the creation of supportive housing. If you are interested to learn more, please check out the Corporation for Supportive Housing.
 
The crisis of unsheltered homelessness will not subside on its own. We must create more housing opportunities for people of very low income. The Bay Street proposal is a reasonable way to do this.
 
We go back to the Planning Board on October 3rd. This project is being considered under the City’s Performance Zoning ordinance, which gives the Planning Board the authority to approve a project that doesn’t comply with the regular zoning rules if the project is well-planned, compatible with adjacent parcels, enhances the overall community, and mitigates negative impacts on municipal services. We argue that the Bay Street project meets these criteria.
 
The project will clean up a public nuisance, help address an issue that puts a strain on municipal services, increase tax revenue to the City, and improve surrounding property values. The neighborhood is made up mostly of rental properties and other commercial buildings.
 
The decision seems to be coming down to parking. We are proposing 12 efficiency units with maximum occupancy of one person per apartment. The site plan includes six parking spaces, and we are confident this is sufficient. LRMHC already works with the people most likely to live in the building – only 10% of this population has a vehicle. Most simply do not have enough income to own a car. And if parking ever becomes an issue, LRMHC has the resources to provide off-site parking and transportation.
 
If you are a Laconia resident, I encourage you to review the materials about our project on the City’s website and attend the October 3rd Planning Board meeting to share your thoughts.
 
Thank you!
 
Carmen Lorentz
Lakes Region Community Developers

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
 
The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15.
 
The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30 day period.
 
Here are some great resources to help you and your family celebrate!
 
National Museum of the American Latino
Hispanic Heritage Month Resources | National Museum of the American Latino (si.edu)
 
PBS Hispanic & Latino Heritage Month
What to Watch: Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month | PBS
 
Boys & Girls Clubs of America
8 Ways to Celebrate Hispanic & Latino Heritage Month (bgca.org

​LRCD supports resident-led projects and activities because it builds relationships between neighbors and provides opportunities to develop leadership skills. This summer, residents across our portfolio led the building and planting of seven community gardens, started a Neighborhood Watch, and re-established a Girl Scout Troop!

Our Dental Program provides matching payments to dental providers to help our adult tenants access the dental care they need.
We are almost out of money in our dental fund!  All donations made to LRCD during the months of August and September will go into our dental fund. Please tell your friends!
Click HERE to help us replenish this fund.
We launched our Dental Program in October 2020, after learning through a survey that 70% of our adult tenants were not accessing dental care due to lack of insurance and inability to pay. The vast majority of our tenants have household incomes below 50% of area median income. Although most indicated they had health insurance, very few had dental insurance. Those on Medicaid who now have a dental benefit struggle to find dentists who accept Medicaid. This leaves even routine dental care out of financial reach for most of our tenants.
​
​Patty is a tenant at LRCD's Pinecrest Apartments in Meredith and she serves on LRCD's Board of Directors.  Patty, whose teeth never came in right as a child, shares, “by the time my birthday rolls around, I will actually, for the first time in my entire life, have a smile I will be proud of. And LRCD is helping to make that happen for me.”

Good news! The Town of Wolfeboro has granted land use approvals for Harriman Hill Phase III, which will consist of 30 affordable rental apartments in a mix of unit sizes.
​
Phase III was originally intended to be a 20-unit homeownership project, but when construction costs made that infeasible, we pivoted to a rental project.

We are excited to complete the Harriman Hill development. Phases I & II were built in 2012 and 2014, respectively. We will find out if Phase III is awarded funding toward the end of the year.

​Although we moved in to our "new" office at 193 Court Street in Laconia back in 2019, there was still quite a list of improvements needed to ensure our forever home was in line with our value of building climate-resilient communities. We completed that work this year, including remediating asbestos-containing material in the attic, adding spray foam insulation to the attic and basement, and adding rigid foam insulation and new siding to the north and rear-facing exterior. We also installed a 33-panel rooftop solar array, which will generate more electricity than we use each year.

Check out the before / after photos below. 

Thank you to the NH Community Development Finance Authority for awarding us NH tax credits to help us raise the needed funds and to the donors who made this possible!

Franklin Savings Bank
Hodges Companies
Leone, McDonnell & Roberts
Main Street America Assurance Company
Melcher & Prescott Insurance
Meredith Village Savings Bank
Northway Bank
Resilient Buildings Group
Rogers Family Trust
Sheehan Phinney
Stafford Oil Company
Wescott Law

​Thank you to Stewart Property Management for being a Housing Champion and supporting our work!

Despite the big need for supportive housing, we are encountering opposition to our proposed Bay Street Apartments at 17 Bay Street in Laconia. The project would clean up a burned-out building and create 12 efficiency apartments for individuals with less than $20,000 in income who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.

Lakes Region Mental Health Center (LRMHC) would provide supportive services to the tenants, including benefits counseling, financial management, independent living skills training, healthcare management, employment services, and crisis intervention. LRMHC serves thousands of Lakes Region residents every year. Among their existing clients, approximately 100 people lack stable housing, making the 12 units at Bay Street merely a drop in the bucket in terms of the need for this type of housing.

We go back to the Planning Board on October 3rd. If you are a Laconia resident, we encourage you to attend the meeting and share your thoughts on the need for supportive housing in Laconia to help address the crisis of homelessness.

Our Dental Program provides matching payments to dental providers to help our adult tenants access the dental care they need.
We are almost out of money in our dental fund!  All donations made to LRCD during the months of August and September will go into our dental fund. Please tell your friends!
Click HERE to help us replenish this fund.
We launched our Dental Program in October 2020, after learning through a survey that 70% of our adult tenants were not accessing dental care due to lack of insurance and inability to pay. The vast majority of our tenants have household incomes below 50% of area median income. Although most indicated they had health insurance, very few had dental insurance. Those on Medicaid who now have a dental benefit struggle to find dentists who accept Medicaid. This leaves even routine dental care out of financial reach for most of our tenants.

Patty is a tenant at LRCD's Pinecrest Apartments in Meredith and she serves on LRCD's Board of Directors.  Patty, whose teeth never came in right as a child, shares, “by the time my birthday rolls around, I will actually, for the first time in my entire life, have a smile I will be proud of. And LRCD is helping to make that happen for me.”

​Supportive housing combines permanent affordable housing with supportive services for people with extremely low incomes who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.
 
According to the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, “Study after study has shown that supportive housing not only resolves homelessness and increases housing stability, but also improves health and lowers public costs by reducing the use of publicly-funded crisis services, including shelters, hospitals, psychiatric centers, jails, and prisons.”
 
There is very little supportive housing in the Lakes Region. We hope to change that with Bay Street Apartments in Laconia. The project would clean up the lot at 17-19 Bay Street, where a fire destroyed the primary structure in February 2022.
 
We hope to construct a building with 12 small efficiency apartments for individuals with less than $20,000 in annual income who are experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. Lakes Region Mental Health Center (LRMHC) would provide the supportive services. In fact, they would be the primary means of marketing the available units because about 100 of their existing clients lack stable housing.

The Laconia Planning Board tabled our site plan last month because they are concerned about parking – you can read about that here. Most of the people who would live at Bay Street Apartments do not own vehicles due to lack of income. We are hopeful that the parking issue can be resolved so this project can move forward.

It is a difficult environment out there for affordable housing. While inflation seems to be slowing down, construction is booming here in New Hampshire so building costs are still very high. Another challenge is getting land use approvals for projects. Despite the increasing awareness of the housing crisis, local land use ordinances and processes have not been streamlined to make it easier to build the housing that we need.

Despite these barriers, we are hard at work on the following projects, in addition to our supportive housing project on Bay Street in Laconia: 

Harriman Hill Phase III, Wolfeboro: This project will complete the Harriman Hill development that we started building back in 2012. The first two phases contain a total of 48 apartments serving households below 60% of area median income.

Phase III will contain 30 apartments in a mix of unit sizes and will serve a wider mix of income levels.

We have Zoning Board approval, and we are awaiting the Planning Board’s decision on our site plan application. We have submitted our applications for funding. 

Village at Mill Pond, Ashland: This project is on a fairly large site behind the town’s recreation fields, just off I-93 as you head into Ashland. The concept is still being finalized with the town, but we hope the project will contain at least 70 apartments. Over the next few months, we will be seeking land use approvals. Once we obtain those, we can get the project in the queue for funding.

We got updated cost estimates this winter, which caused us to have to seek additional funding to move forward. We continue work to restore this beloved historic school building in Belmont so that it can serve as the home of a new childcare center operated by the Boys & Girls Club of Central NH and a new program center for Lakes Region Community Services.
​
We hope to have enough funds to go out to bid in early 2024. Thank you to all the donors and funders who have contributed to this effort so far!

Lakes Region Community Developers (LRCD) is proud to announce they were recently awarded a $30,000 grant from the Linden Foundation to support LRCD’s transitional housing and eviction prevention programs, both of which seek to address the crisis of homelessness in the Lakes Region.
 
According to its website, the Linden Foundation “funds non-profit organizations that strengthen families facing multiple barriers in accessing community resources by helping provide them with the skills and support systems they need to become cohesive, internally supportive, and self-sufficient.” READ MORE...

Exciting news! We have been awarded funding to put solar on some of our buildings at Millview Apartments in Laconia. This will be a big help in our energy sustainability goals AND will save our tenants money. 

​LEARN MORE

​LRCD is pleased to announce the completion of a healthy homes project at its three-unit building at 334 South Main Street, Laconia. This project was funded by NH Housing's Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes Program.

The $72,000 scope of work abated lead paint hazards in baseboards and trim throughout the building, as well as in some built-in cabinets, doors, a storage area, and the front porch. Contaminated exterior soils were removed. Insulation and a new bulkhead were installed, the foundation was re-pointed, and several old windows were replaced with energy star rated windows to improve the building's efficiency.

LRCD's goal is to obtain Lead Safe Certificates for all of its pre-1978 multi-family buildings in Laconia. It is an arduous and expensive process to conduct lead paint testing and abatement in occupied apartments. LRCD's overarching commitment to healthy housing drives us to pursue this goal despite the challenges.

​Photo caption: before and after shots on the front porch entryway.

Patty Nichols  is lovingly called “the matriarch” by her friends at Pinecrest Apartments in Meredith, an affordable housing apartment complex developed by Lakes Region Community Developers. According to Patty though, “we all just look out for each other.”

For Patty's full story, click HERE. ​