Posted by Susy Thielen on November 22nd, 2011 — in Housing News, Monadnock Region Coalition
You are invited to join us on Friday, December 2nd from 7:00 to 9:00 AM for Heading for Home’s 6th Annual Business Leaders Breakfast as we explore the the critical role housing plays in our region’s economic recovery.
The event will include:
- Report of findings and “next steps” from the region-wide Housing Summit held on June 1, 2011
- Presentation Topic: “The Current Housing Environment-what’s changed and where are we going.”
- Featured speaker: Dennis Delay, Economist with the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies and the New England Economic Partnership. a non-profit organization dedicated to providing objective economic analyses and forecasts
- Full, delicious breakfast.
The $10 registration fee covers the cost of breakfast
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
For questions about the event, contact Susy Thielen at <susyt@headingforhome.org> or 352-1449.
This event is made possible through the sponsorship of Savings Bank of Walpole and Hampshire First Bank, both local New Hampshire Banks.
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Posted by Susy Thielen on April 25th, 2011 — in Housing News, Monadnock Region Coalition
Register Now!
We are losing key professionals from the Monadnock Region. Young professionals, nurses, teachers, emergency response personnel, accountants, small business owners and hard workers in many local businesses cannot afford to live in our region.
Young people are choosing to move to other states where significant investments have been made in housing that is reasonably priced. Heading for Home has been working toward making sure that these professionals that contribute so much to our community and our economy can live here at home.
We have identified the most significant barriers to moving forward on critical workforce housing projects and now we need you! It’s time to refine the strategies to breakthrough the existing barriers and move into an action phase that produces affordable workforce housing for these valued community members within the next three to four years.
Join us on June 1st. from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. as we work together on strategies to break down the existing barriers to these projects within the Monadnock Region. Your experience and time will be critical to solving this challenge as we move forward.
The day will include:
* Speakers with experiences in local towns working toward implementing affordable housing
* Roundtable discussions with members from important economic sectors to resolve these issues
* Great food
The $20 registration fee covers the cost of breakfast, lunch and snacks.
Register Now!
For questions about the event or registration, please contact Heading for Home at the email or phone information below.
Thank you for your interest and support. We look forward to seeing you at the Housing Summit.
Sincerely,
Susan Newcomer, Heading for Home Board Member
Workforce Development Coordinator
Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce
HousingSummit2011@gmail.com
603-352-1303 x14
Platinum Sponsors: Public Service Company of New Hampshire
Sustaining Sponsors: New Hampshire Housing, Citizens Bank
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Posted by Susy Thielen on February 21st, 2011 — in Housing News, Monadnock Region Coalition
Affordable housing in the Keene area is hard to find and sometimes difficult to keep. Demand trumps supply and wait lists stretch out for years. For people with limited means who are looking for a place to live, it can be a …
By Sarah Trefethen
Sentinel Staff
Published: Sunday, February 20, 2011
Asked how she imagined her retirement, Janet LaBelle laughed.
“On a beach, with a pool boy fanning me,” she said, before turning more serious. She thought she might travel and see more of the country, take some time for art, and volunteer at the hospital, she said.
Things aren’t working out as planned.
LaBelle has seen her income drop and her expenses skyrocket in recent years due to a series of medical crises. On top of illnesses and financial difficulties, she can’t find an affordable place to live, part of a chronic problem in the Keene area.
Home rentals in non-metropolitan areas of New Hampshire are the fifth- most expensive of any state in the country, behind Massachusetts, Hawaii, Alaska and Connecticut, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group. If you include cities, New Hampshire is the 10th-most expensive state for renters. Read the rest of this page »
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Posted by Susy Thielen on October 4th, 2010 — in Monadnock Region Coalition
Heading for Home’s 5th Annual Business Leaders Breakfast
7-9 a.m. Friday, November 5
Keene State Alumni Center
Topic:
“Housing Diversity, Neighborhoods, and Economic Development”
Featured Speaker:
Nate Kelly, AICP, Certified Land Use Planner, Horsley Witten Group
Mr. Kelly will discuss the critical role housing plays in the future of our region. “We all know now that a healthy local economy is one that is diversified. If our housing stock doesn’t provide an equal level of diversity, the workforce can’t support itself across the different business sectors. It’s simply not sustainable.” - Nate Kelly
Workforce Housing Update:
Keith Thibault, Development Director, Southwestern Community Services
Registration:
Contact <susyt@headingforhome.org>. For more information, visit <www.headingforhome.org>. Come learn, participate and network with the region’s business leaders.
Register early; seating is limited. Please RSVP by October 29, 2010.
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Posted by Susy Thielen on May 17th, 2010 — in Housing News, Monadnock Region Coalition
Communities work to meet workforce housing standards
By Casey Farrar
Sentinel Staff
Published: Monday, May 17, 2010
It started with a Hanover church group looking for affordable housing for a refugee family from the Middle East.
Now, by the time an affordable housing development in Hanover is finished later this year, it will boast 120 new homes for working families in the Upper Valley.
The Gile Hill condominium project, which took more than seven years of work to secure financing and permits, is the largest workforce housing development in the state.
Much of the heavy lifting for the project was done by the Hanover Affordable Housing Commission, a group formed by the town’s board of selectmen after local residents pushed for more affordable housing, said Len Cadwallader, who is a member of the group.
It’s a model that members of a Monadnock Region workforce housing coalition are hoping communities in this region will look to as they try to increase the amount of affordable places for families.
Last week, Heading for Home — a nonprofit collective of individuals, businesses and social services agencies — hosted a forum at Keene State College on municipal housing commissions. Read the rest of this page »
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Posted by Susy Thielen on May 5th, 2010 — in Housing News, Monadnock Region Coalition
Please join us for New Hampshire’s first Housing Commission Workshop, Thursday, May 13, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Room 101 Putnam Science Center, Keene State College, Keene.
Partners: Heading for Home, Southwest Region Planning Commission, New Hampshire Housing
Panelists: From the Hanover Affordable Housing Commission, Len Cadwallader, Executive Director, Vital Communities, White River Junction, VT. From NH Housing, George Reagan, Administrator, Housing Awareness Program and Ben Frost, Director of Public Affairs.
The panelists will present a variety of information that will give participants a better understanding of how a community can benefit by the establishment of a local housing commission. The first half of the program will include lessons learned in creating a housing commission by the Hanover Affordable Housing Commission, an overview of the new Housing Commission Workbook developed by New Hampshire Housing and a summary of potential legal and tax implications for municipalities. The second half of the program will be a facilitated question and answer session focused on the formation of a housing commission.
Registration: There will be a buffet at 5:30 p.m. with the program from 6-7:30 p.m. There is no charge to attend this workshop, but pre-registration is required. To register for this event or for additional information, please contact Lisa Murphy at (603) 357-0557, lmurphy@swrpc.org or Susy Thielen of Heading for Home at susyt@headingforhome.org. Please register no later than 5:00 p.m., May 11, 2010.
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Posted by Susy Thielen on November 12th, 2009 — in Housing News, Monadnock Region Coalition
By Jessica Arriens
Sentinel Staff
Published: Saturday, November 07, 2009
Picture a middle school dance. Boys on one side of the room, girls on the other, everyone too shy to make the first move onto the gym-turned-dance floor.
In a sense, the relationship between young professionals and their elder counterparts can be thought of the same way.
Either side may want to participate in community initiatives, but their involvement won’t happen without a first step. Or: until somebody walks across that room, nobody dances.
Talk of how to take those first steps — and why they are important — happened Friday morning in Keene, at an annual Business Leaders Breakfast sponsored by Heading for Home, the Monadnock Region’s housing coalition.
Though the discussion hinged on the economic necessity of young professionals, much of it also centered on the necessity of their having affordable housing — something a community needs for a vibrant workforce to flourish in the first place, event participants said. Read the rest of this page »
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Posted by Susy Thielen on October 19th, 2009 — in Monadnock Region Coalition
Heading for Home’s 4th annual Business Leaders Breakfast on November 6.
Topic: Will the Monadnock Region be ready for economic recovery?
Panelists:
Neil Giarrantana, President and CTO of Lucidus Internet Solutions, Katie Sutherland, Architect, and Steve Reno, the former Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire.
The panel discussed the economic necessity of having affordable housing available when trying to recruit and retain younger professional workers. This is one of the critical issues that could make or break the Monadnock region’s future economic growth as we compete with the rest of the state and New England.
Dan Scully, Daniel V. Scully Architects, presented his three dimensional model of central Keene showing how housing density could be increased in the central business district by adding upper levels to existing buildings.
Community Sponsors:
This event was sponsored by the Savings Bank of Walpole and Connecticut River Bank, NA.
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Posted by Susy Thielen on July 13th, 2009 — in Membership, Monadnock Region Coalition
Heading for Home offers an easy way for our community to support workforce housing in the Monadnock Region. Click here or on the “Donate Now” white text link above to submit your donation. You will receive email confirmation via PayPal that your donation has been accepted.
We are utilizing this approach to maximize the impact of our donors’ contributions while minimizing the high overhead costs (postage, printing, etc.) incurred when using a mail-based donor campaign.
Do you have questions about what Heading for Home has accomplished? Click here to see a summary of Heading for Home’s recent accomplishments.
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Posted by Susy Thielen on April 16th, 2009 — in Housing News, Monadnock Region Coalition
By Jessica Arriens
Sentinel Staff
Published: Thursday, April 16, 2009
It’s not often that a tax map is so shocking it makes people gasp.
But when those maps show that in six years more than half of Keene’s workforce housing — housing stock that employed people in low- and middle-income brackets can afford — simply disappeared, otherwise mundane tax maps become unbelievable.
Put simply, “It’s a pretty significant decrease,” said Torin Hjelmstad, one of three Keene State College geography students responsible for the map, one part of a workforce housing study titled “May the Force be with you: Workforce Housing in the Monadnock Region.”
Hjelmstad, along with students Sarah Forler and Elizabeth Kane, presented the report to the public Wednesday night at Bentley Commons in Keene. Read the rest of this page »
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