BEDFORD – Two affordable housing initiatives – one designed to increase supported housing for developmentally disabled adults and another to preserve existing affordable multi-family rental housing – recently received grants of $50,000 from the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority.
An Emerging Opportunities Program grant was awarded to Visions for Creative Housing, which provides supported housing for low-income developmentally disabled adults in the Upper Valley. Its $50,000 grant will be used to increase the number of supported housing settings around the state. By replicating its Enfield program model, the grant will help the organization and its partners expand over the next five years to six additional locations.
A second grant of $50,000 will help identify and preserve multi-family rental housing for low and moderate income residents. When these buildings (known as naturally occurring affordable housing, or NOAH) are sold, the new owners often raise rents, making the property less affordable for its tenants. By identifying NOAHs that are for sale, and subsequently supporting acquisition by a nonprofit developer, affordable rent levels in these buildings can be preserved for tenants. This grant to Avesta Housing will help that organization identify NOAH properties in a region of New Hampshire, with the goal of acquiring 100 apartments within a year.
“These New Hampshire Housing grants are targeted to different housing needs of Granite State residents. The grant to Visions for Creative Housing will leverage its experience in the Upper Valley to develop much needed supportive housing in other parts of the state,” said Dean Christon, executive director of NHHFA. “The grant to Avesta Housing will help preserve existing affordable multi-family rental housing that might otherwise be lost,” he noted.
Non-profit organizations engaged in affordable housing activities in the state were invited to apply for grants from the Emerging Opportunities Program. Now in its fifth year, the program supports innovative initiatives focused on developing and operating affordable housing programs that serve very low to moderate-income households.