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Our Place near deal for Seacoast NH home for adults with disabilities
DOVER — Our Place, a nonprofit seeking to provide adults with intellectual developmental disabilities with independent living opportunities, may have found its first home.
If all goes according to plan, a former commercial building in Dover could be converted to create apartments for 10-12 adults.
Laurie McIntosh, executive director of Our Place and its board of directors, stated they have reached a verbal agreement with the owner of the Dover property, which she did not identify because Our Place is still in active negotiations to secure the property.
“We will be drawing up papers and once those are signed, we will have secured the property so that we can raise the capital to buy it and perform all the due diligence tasks to be ready to create our first home for adults with developmental disabilities,” McIntosh said. “The property we are looking at is near a bus route and there are sidewalks going into downtown Dover. There is plenty of parking, and we believe we can renovate this property to suit our needs.”
McIntosh said in order to get a commercial loan to purchase the property and do the necessary renovations and additions, $400,000 is needed in a building account. She said Our Place, which was founded in 2019, will need to prove to a bank it can buy the property and that it has sufficient funds to renovate it.
She noted a fund drive June 6-7 via NH Gives was being used to help raise funds.
“We already have $22,000 in commitment matches, so donations will be really effective during this time. Of course, we will take donations gratefully at any time,” she said.
McIntosh in February said Our Place had raised nearly $300,000, meaning it was ready to seek a property.
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What is Our Place?
The mission of Our Place is to provide a permanent home for adults with intellectual developmental disabilities in the greater Seacoast who have aged out of support available for children.
“I want to live at Our Place because I want to be independent and live with my friends,” Sam Cousins said in an earlier interview. “We can talk, play games and watch TV and eat dinner!”
Cousins, who is 30, lives with her parents in Stratham. Our Place seeks to provide the home she and her friends want, and to give parents confidence their adult children with disabilities have a safe home and a bright future.
“We already have 60 families on an “interested” list,” McIntosh said. “We are not ready to begin making any selections yet. The property is zoned commercial, allowing for four units so one of the first things we will need to do is seek a variance, to add on to the current site making it usable for 10-12 apartments, plus common areas. Because of its (current) use, it already has a sprinkler system and is on city water and sewer.”
Eligible residents will be selected through fair housing requirements. They will need to be disabled, recipients of Social Security or other aid, and capable of independent living.
What are next steps for Our Place?
McIntosh said she had already made it a point to speak to area residents and has not received any negative feedback.
“We would be good neighbors,” said McIntosh. “Our goal is to give these adults space of their own, but with the added community benefit of being with each other. We are not a medical facility, so our tenants will need to be independent … able to take their own medications, maybe with a little assistance. There will be an on-site manager, but they are not going to be medical personnel. The idea is to provide for these adults a chance to be independent, and to give peace of mind to their families.”
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The Our Place board is working with the Strafford Economic Development Corporation to secure funding. McIntosh said the nonprofit will seek all the grants and low interest loans it can, with plans to secure the remainder through a bank loan.
“Then we will begin our capital planning, hiring an architect, and other professionals to make this happen,” she said. “We hope to have the property secured this week, giving us the option to proceed.”
McIntosh said Our Place has made a lot of progress since a group of parents got together in 2019 to try to find housing for their adult children. The group discovered New Hampshire did not have a plan for all the adults with intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD) who were living with their parents.
The parents created Our Place. Its board of directors looked around the state and found only a few places where people with disabilities could find supportive housing and live with or near their peers. One of these, Visions for Creative Housing Solutions, in Enfield, became the model they decided to try to replicate on the Seacoast.
Our Place is envisioned to have a common kitchen, dining and living room. It could be in one building or multiple smaller buildings, and located near public transportation or offer parking for staff cars and a van. Being located near a downtown area would be a plus so residents could walk to jobs or recreational activities.
Our Place also has a vision for a second housing project in the future, teaming up with Regan Development of New York. The vision, McIntosh said, is for Regan to build affordable housing with 40 units on 3-6 acres of property, including 10 of the units for adults with developmental disabilities scattered across the building. There would be an office area for staff and a community room for activities to be used by all tenants. Regan would finance this project, she said.
How to help
Donations for Our Place are being accepted through the donate button at ourplacenh.org. For information, call 603-617-6900 or email [email protected].
