CDFA Awards $3.1M in Grants for Housing, Public Facilities

The NH Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) has approved Community Development Block Grant awards to eight New Hampshire municipalities and counties totaling nearly $3.1 million. The funds will go toward projects developing affordable housing, public works, and upgrading failing infrastructure which benefit nearly 2,600 low- and moderate-income residents in the Granite State.

“These CDBG awards are granted to towns and counties in every part of the state. These are the projects that community leaders say are needed to help their residents who are of low- and moderate-income,” said CDFA Communications Director Kevin Flynn. “Much of the needed work addresses the high energy costs associated with operating these facilities. Those expenditures are increasingly making the properties too expensive to operate or diverting precious resources from other services the nonprofits provide.”

• Merrimack County will receive $300,000 on behalf of Second Start to replace the roof and make masonry repairs on their main building in Concord. CDBG funds will be used to replace the leaky roof, make mortar repairs to the exterior façade, complete some exterior painting, and add some insulation to the building that provides services such as adult education, transitional employment training, and a drug and alcohol prevention program for teens.
• To make energy repairs to the Old Graded School Building, the town of Warner will receive at $20,600 grant. The repurposed building houses several community programs including a food pantry, Head Start, and a pre-school. Annual energy costs for the facility exceed $15,000 and planned upgrades will help reduce overhead.
• The proposed Suncook Senior Center will receive $500,000 through a grant to the Town of Allenstown. The center, to be run by the Belknap-Merrimack Community Action Program, will be an addition on to the soon-to-be-built Suncook Boys & Girls Club. The project will allow for Meals on Wheels operations and a handicapped accessible wellness facility for local seniors.
• A $478,880 grant to the town of Tilton on behalf of the Gaslight Village Cooperative to replace existing septic systems by connecting to the municipal wastewater system. Additional work will be conducted to improve drainage to the manufactured home park. The project will also demolish a dilapidated building on site which poses a health and safety hazard to residents.
• The city of Berlin will receive $500,000 in CDBG funds on behalf of Affordable Housing, Education and Development, Inc. (AHEAD) for energy improvements at Northern Lights Senior Housing. The scope of work includes installing a new wood pellet boiler, replacing one section of roofing, energy efficiency improvements, and fire alarm upgrades for the 63 unit facility.
• A $255,000 grant to the city of Keene on behalf of Keene Housing Authority for the rehabilitation of the men’s emergency shelter, which served 108 people last year. The proposed improvements include upgrades to electrical and fire alarm systems, a new roof, and general carpentry and plumbing repairs throughout the facility.
• On behalf of the Somersworth Housing Authority, a $500,000 grant to the City of Somersworth to implement energy improvements at the Albert J. Nadeau Homes affordable housing development. Among the work will be the implementation of natural gas heat and hot water boilers as well as new baseboard heating. Without the upgrades, energy costs will eventually make the 17-unit property too expensive to maintain.
• A grant of $500,000 to Hillsborough County for The Granite YMCA’s plan to build a Center for Youth and Teen Leadership addition to their facility in Goffstown. The new, approximately 4,112 square foot addition will provide after school services for about 1,300 area children, the majority of who come from families earning low-or-moderate income.

The grants await final approval from the Executive Council.

The CDBG program funds provide housing and create jobs primarily for low- and moderate-income people. Funds are provided to the state of New Hampshire by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and administered by CDFA. Each project is evaluated on several criteria, including impact on low- and moderate-income residents and the acquisition of matching funding.