Team Members working on the project. Clockwise from lower left: Laurie McIntosh, Ron Walton, Ben Sahl, Phil Desmond, Jackie Hookway, Rob Baldwin.
Our Place applied to be included in a Supportive Housing Institute hosted by the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority and the Corporation for Supportive Housing. Our application was accepted and we sent a team to the Institute which was scheduled to meet two days a month from January to June 2020. Because of Covid 19, we ended up switching to remote learning after our March class and the institute was extended through the summer. The goal of the institute was to teach development teams from around the state everything that they would need to know to develop a supportive housing project. With Our Place in mind, we sent representatives from our board along with Jackie Hookway from Community Partners, the area agency that has agreed to be our service partner, Rob Baldwin from Central Falls Realty who agreed to be our development partner for the institute, and Ben Sahl who is the attorney who wrote the “Toolbook” created by Visions.
The Institute taught our team how to work together as a team with a service agency and developer to create a viable project. We learned how to look at quality indicators to make sure that Our Place will have the highest standards. Learning units included information about the laws for fairness in housing and how to respect racial equality. We learned about the different roles of the service provider, developer, building manager and how they communicate with each other. The institute covered service budgets, operating budgets, development budgets, service plans, selection plans, leasing and applications. The basics of property management were explained as well as how to design a building that meets our needs and the needs of our population. And finally we learned what it takes to build a good relationship with the community and gain community support for a project like Our Place.
We are very grateful to the instructors from the Corporation for Supportive Housing as well as the staff from New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority for providing this valuable learning experience. Not only did they help us design a great project, but they will continue to stand by us with support and advice as we move forward.