An additional $2 million in congressionally directed spending is slated to help fund the second phase of an affordable housing project at the old Roosevelt School on Washington Street in Keene. One million dollars has already been granted by the federal government.
“The $2 million is critically important because it fills a $2 million hole in the budget that we’ve penciled out so far,” said Josh Meehan, executive director of Keene Housing, which is spearheading the project. The organization began working on the initiative about two years ago.
One million dollars in federal money already went toward the first round of construction, which broke ground just over a month ago and is on track to add 30 apartments to Keene’s housing stock by the end of next summer. The $2 million set to be appropriated in the federal government’s 2025 budget, which still must be passed, would help pay for phase two, adding another 30 apartments at the same site. Plans call for the 60 apartments to have one and two bedrooms.
“We’re incredibly grateful to [U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.] for helping to find funds that we are going to need to bring Roosevelt School West to fruition,” Meehan said of the project’s second phase.
His organization, which works to bolster affordable housing and support area residents of low and moderate income, is applying for other government money in the coming months to cover the rest of the roughly $6 million that phase two is expected to cost. In addition to the $1 million from Congress that U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., secured for phase one (Roosevelt School East), other federal and state monies are helping to cover the $8 million cost of this first round of construction. Meehan hopes to break ground on the second round next summer.
People making a maximum of 60 percent of the area median income are eligible to live in the new Roosevelt School apartments. The area median income in Cheshire County for an individual is $71,050, and it is $81,200 for a family of two and $101,500 for a family of four. Some units will be reserved for households that make up to 30 and 50 percent of the area median income. According to Meehan, most of the individuals and families on the extensive waitlist for one of the 590 units Keene Housing manages in the Elm City and Swanzey make below 50 percent of the area median.
Vouchers will reduce rental costs for tenants.
A subset of the Roosevelt units will be set aside for people experiencing homelessness or immediately at risk of it. People in these circumstances will have priority for five apartments in Roosevelt School East, and six in Roosevelt School West.
A low housing stock and high costs to rent or own residential properties are affecting people throughout the Granite State. The vacancy rate in two-bedroom apartments in New Hampshire was only 0.6 percent in 2023, according to a report from N.H. Housing, a statewide public corporation dedicated to developing housing solutions.
As in elsewhere in New Hampshire, renting an apartment or owning a home in Keene isn’t affordable for many residents, per a housing needs assessment conducted for the city. Median-priced homes are out of the price range for median-income households, and median-priced apartments are too expensive for people making below an hourly rate of $21.
Meehan, of Keene Housing, said phase one of the Roosevelt project is “going great … we remain on schedule.”
“And of course, we’re really looking forward to someday in the not too distant future having both of those phases completed,” he said, “and filled with folks who are on our waiting list, desperately waiting for an opportunity to have a nice new, high-quality place to call home.”
Sophia Keshmiri can be reached at 603-283-0725 or skeshmiri@keenesentinel.com.
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