A Renewed Emphasis

The past several years have featured tremendous progress in MHRA’s rejuvenated housing development operation, as the Authority has worked intensively with its public and private development partners to surge ahead with multiple new housing development initiatives.

By the end of the 1990s, traditional funding sources for new housing development by public housing authorities had all but disappeared, and PHA housing production had essentially ceased. With a desperate need for more low income affordable housing opportunities for many thousands of Manchester families and elderly, in 2001 MHRA’s Executive Director sent forth a call to creative action to “everyone in sight who shares the belief that such opportunities are essential to Manchester’s best future.”

The response was swift and substantial, and it has resulted in public and private entities joining with MHRA in pursuit of new and creative ways to address the acute housing needs of Manchester residents.

Since then the collective efforts and resources of MHRA and its partners have produced a series of new development projects which add over 600 apartments to Manchester’s low income affordable housing inventory at a total development cost of more than $70 million.

MHRA’s rehabilitation and conversion of the former Gale Home on Maple Street to the Mary Gale Apartments has received accolades for its historically sensitive and aesthetically pleasing design. The 37 unit Mary Gale Apartments provide housing with supportive services to low income elderly and persons with disabilities. Renovation of the former Brown School on Manchester’s West Side adds another 37 such units.

MHRA recently partnered with Southern New Hampshire Services to build the 28 unit, HUD Section 202 funded Derryfield Village to provide affordable housing for Manchester’s elderly residents. MHRA also recently partnered with a private developer, The Anagnost Companies, to develop 90 units of family housing on Old Wellington Road and the two entities are currently involved in another joint initiative which will result in 66 more units of low income affordable family housing at Karatzas Avenue. A later phase of the Karatzas Avenue project will provide an additional 72 family units.

MHRA has also implemented the project based voucher program to stimulate the development of new housing and to subsidize rents to provide affordable housing to Manchester’s lowest income residents. Project based vouchers are assisting the following projects:

At a time when rental housing has been in critically short supply and has been unaffordable to so many households, these new housing development efforts have significantly improved the lives of many Manchester families.