Mark Hayward: Mark Hayward's City Matters: Be they ever so small, housing projects advance
Aug. 8—THE BIG NEWS from the city last week was the approval by Mayor Joyce Craig and aldermen of a deal that will see some 400 apartments built on two downtown parking lots.
Although I'm skeptical they will be built, I'm all for it. The projects will ease the housing crunch, and about 10% of the apartments will be reserved for low-income people and 20% for working class.
They are big projects that will change the face of the downtown and cost millions.
Don't discount, however, the smaller efforts, taken up by people who see a need, write a lot of checks and hope to earn a little bit of money in the end.
If enough people undertake small efforts such as these, the city will have enough apartments, without or without the mega-projects.
Here is an update on three that I've written about in the past.
A step to independent living
Brian Hanaford, 60, has had a rough go of life. He suffered a brain injury in an automobile accident up north and ended up living in the fourth floor of Robinson House, a rooming house on Manchester Street in downtown.
Last week, he moved into the second floor of 35 High St., which is adjacent to Pulaski Park. Built as a single-family home, the 100-year-old structure was more recently an office building.
This past winter, Manchester resident Craig St. Pierre started working on its conversion into a building with five small one-bedroom apartments.
He rents each out for $1,400, which includes heat, electricity, hot water and air conditioning. St. Pierre went through Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority to fill most of the apartments with people, like Hanaford, who are eligible for Section 8 housing vouchers.
"There's an uplift in the entire community with the tenants I selected," he said. A room opens at Robinson House for someone at the New Horizons shelter, and a bed opens at the shelter for someone sleeping at the park.
St. Pierre said he spent $600,000. With his brother and mother, the family contributed a lot of sweat equity. The two biggest costs were a city-mandated sprinkler system and insulation, he said.
The housing authority has pledged $12,000 toward the project. Otherwise St. Pierre, a landlord in Manchester, financed the project himself.
But projects such as his — which basically involve carving up a house — won't work everywhere. He notes he is downtown, near a prison halfway house and rooming house.
"It's not a keep-out-of-my-backyard neighborhood," he said.
St. Pierre said he kept expenses low by avoiding top-of-the-line items such as granite countertops. With an affordable price, neat units and convenient location, he expects to keep the same tenants for years.
Hanaford's unit is the only second-floor unit, and it includes a skylight and exposed rafters. He can look out on Pulaski Park. But the best part of it: he has his own kitchen and bathroom, unlike the rooming house.
"This is the best thing that's happened to me in six months," he said.
Housing as worker benefit
Three years ago, Sandra Almonte purchased a triple-decker next to her business, Don Quijote Restaurant, and rented apartments to her workers. To her, it was a win-win. Her workers lived nearby and could easily make it to work, and the stable, affordable housing made it easier for them to raise their children.
When I wrote about her last September, she spoke about trying to purchase another nearby tenement building for more of her workers.
But no one's selling, so last month Almonte received a variance from the city to build a three-story building adjacent to her Union Street restaurant.
She's working with an architect on a design. She wants to use the ground floor of the new building as a pantry for Don Quijote. The top two floors will contain three apartments between them.
"You have a lot of space up there, why not try to use the space?" she said.
Almonte said she hopes she can rent out the apartments for less than $1,000, which would help her single-parent workers.
As chairman of the NeighborWorks board of directors, she also would be aware of grants or low-rate financing available to build new homes.
She expects it will cost $350,000 to $400,000 to build, and it probably won't be finished until a year from now.
Haunted house exorcised
The housing crunch is so bad that even eyesores with shady night-time visitors are getting scooped up.
In late December, Mehmud Anwar spent $170,000 to purchase the house at the corner of Harrison and Union streets, which I previously described as a haunted house. He started work on it in January. Outside, the structure now has new porches and siding.
Inside, he's replaced horse-hair plaster walls with sheetrock.
"It's more work than I thought it would be," he said.
Anwar, who owns Parkside Convenience on Hooksett Road, expects he easily will spend $100,000 to renovate the two-story house, probably more. He expects to rent the apartments for $1,500 a month.
People already have expressed interest, but Anwar said he will need at least another month to finish the project.
Anwar said he approaches the project as a business venture. He will try to flip it, but if not he'll be the landlord, he said.
He hasn't seen any ghosts, but homeless people still try to bed down there some nights, he said.
Meanwhile, a city inspector spooked him during an early visit. The city may want the structure demolished, Anwar recalled the inspector saying. Later, the inspector said a renovation would be fine.
"That scared me," Anwar said.
