Caption: Martha Stone, Executive Director of Cross Roads House in Portsmouth, N.H. Photo/Scott Merrill
One year after the Covid-19 pandemic was declared to be a public health emergency by Gov. Sununu, the rental market in New Hampshire will be receiving another dose of government assistance on March 15. But even with new relief on the way, the creation of affordable housing remains a pressing issue for the state.
The latest round of rental assistance comes from a stimulus bill passed in Jan. that dedicated $25 billion to the states. The money is part of the Coronavirus Relief Fund, run by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
More tenants at Concord’s Cranmore Ridge given ultimatum – pay more for a new apartment or move out
Dean Christensen has lived at the Cranmore Ridge complex with his wife and four-year-old daughter, Grace, for almost three years, but they have already started packing, ontheir way to Fort Myers, Florida, where he found nice apartment in a gated community for less than $1000 a month. GEOFF FORESTER Monitor staff
Dean Christensen has lived at the Cranmore Ridge complex with his wife and four-year-old daughter for almost three years, but they have been packing for a move to Fort Myers, Florida, where he found an apartment for less than $1,000 a month. GEOFF FORESTER photos / Monitor staff
Nowhere to go: Family searches for new home after mid-pandemic eviction
Melissa French and her family were evicted from their Peterborough home so their landlord could renovate. Staff photo by Abbe Hamilton
Melissa French and her family found a new home about a month after being evicted. Staff photo by Abbe Hamilton
Melissa French, of Peterborough. Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021 Staff photo by Abbe Hamilton
Melissa French’s family never quite bounced back from the 2008 housing crisis.
They spent the past decade in tenuous housing situations before finding an affordable place to live in Peterborough in 2015. The stability allowed French to put down roots for the first time in years, even joining the Monadnock Area Transitional Shelter (MATS) board in 2018, but she was forced to face the region’s grim rental market once again this year when she received an eviction notice from their landlord, who wanted the house empty by April so he could renovate and sell.
Published: 2/24/2021 4:35:46 PM
Melissa French’s family never quite bounced back from the 2008 housing crisis. They spent the past decade in tenuous housing situations before finding an affordable place to live in Peterborough in 2015. The stability allowed French to put down roots for the first time in years, even joining the Monadnock Area Transitional Shelter (MATS) board in 2018, but she was forced to face the region’s grim rental market once again this year when she received an eviction notice from their landlord, who wanted the house empty by April so he could renovate and sell. It took an exhaustive monthlong search and crowdsourcing funds to move and pay down some credit card debt, but she finally secured a rental in Dublin to move to in April with her husband, three kids, and a cat. To French, her experience highlighted the serious consequences of the Monadnock region’s lack of affordable housing.
By Bob Sanders - NH Business Review
• Feb 16, 2021
Credit Shane Adams via Flickr/CC - http://ow.ly/OJ5Pe
Can New Hampshire spend $200 million in federal money to keep people in their homes when it wasn’t able to spend $20 million last year for the same purpose?
That’s the question being asked by state officials, housing activists, tenants and landlords while they wait – after the state’s Housing Relief Program ended on Dec. 18 – for the new federal Emergency Rental Assistance program to begin.
And no one really knows the answer.
“It depends on the universe of need that’s out there,” said Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the Department of Business and Economic Affairs and executive director of the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery, or GOFERR.