But solving adequate affordable housing remains a priority for housing advocates
March 15, 2021
Martha Stone, executive director of Cross Roads House in Portsmouth, which provides emergency and transitional housing services. ‘Even people who are employed cannot typically afford a market-rate apartment,’ she says. (Photo by Scott Merrill)
One year after the Covid-19 pandemic was declared a public health emergency by Gov. Chris Sununu, the rental market in New Hampshire will receives 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.
The latest round of assistance $20 million – comes from a stimulus bill passed in January that dedicated $25 billion to the states.
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.
Allegra Boverman
When Walter Riley was first asked about Villa Crest Nursing Home in Manchester the place where his fiancé, 68-year-old Marge Gardner, worked as a housekeeper before she died of Covid-19 he could scarcely contain his bitterness.
“The bastards,” he said. “They didn’t give her adequate protection. They didn’t have instructions on how to fit it. They never should have sent her in those rooms, knowing her age and her condition. They knew she had diabetes.”
In December, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, fined the nursing home $20,820 for two violations: “The employer did not ensure that an effective respiratory protection program was established with worksite-specific procedures for respirator use … such as but not limited to fit testing and medical evaluations,” and it did not report the death after eight hours. Riley, who filed the OSHA complaint two months after Gardner died on June 11, called it a “cover-up.
Outside all winter: In N.H. and in the Lakes Region, unsheltered homelessness rises
Tim Haddock is a regular for lunch at Isaiah 61 Cafe in Laconia, which offers a weekday respite from the cold and a source of donated coats mittens and sleeping bags during cold weather. Roberta Baker Laconia Daily Sun
Freeman Toth has the weighty job of finding people before it is too late.
As one of two homeless outreach and housing stability coordinators for the Community Action Program of Belknap-Merrimack Counties, Toth combs the woods, encampments, parks and gazebos, shelters, soup kitchens and cars. He looks for people who have no consistent place to sleep or to escape life-threatening weather. Late last year he discovered a young man passed out on railroad tracks in freezing temperatures.