Innovative Housing Solutions
Innovative housing solutions are paving the way for affordable housing in New Hampshire and beyond. Whether these programs are in-state or out-of-state (or out-of-country!), they can serve as models for implementation in Monadnock Region communities.
- ADUs and Infill Housing
- Clustered Housing
- Resident Owned Communities
- Shared Housing
- Adaptive Reuse and Innovative Materials
- Financing
Imagine doubling the housing stock in your community without needing to develop any more land. This is what is possible with infill housing, a type of development that increases a community’s housing density by adding smaller residential units in between larger dwellings. For example, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are small, self-sufficient dwellings on single-family plots. Whether new or adapted, detached or attached, within the home or outside, ADUs are designed to blend into existing neighborhoods. As of 2017, ADUs are allowed in some capacity on every single-family plot in New Hampshire. This legislation empowers individual homeowners to create housing on their own property while also keeping their neighborhood’s “feel.”
Monadnock Region Accessory Dwelling Unit Design Challenge
The Monadnock Region ADU Design Challenge aims to connect interested homeowners with architects, students, and building professionals who can provide design services and help homeowners imagine how an ADU could take shape on their property.
ADUSearch
ADUSearch is a platform that finds local ADU ordinance information for Canadian residents.
Community is important, especially with your next-door neighbors. Neighborhood is often a critical factor in choosing where to live. But despite sprawling suburbs with big yards and cul-de-sacs, many homeowners feel increasingly disconnected to their neighbors. Cottage Courts aim to foster community by clustering smaller houses around a shared green space with cars and utilities placed outside of these clusters. The close proximity of front porches, shared walkways, and group living spaces encourages neighbors to get to know each other and build strong social bonds.
Concord Riverwalk
The Concord Riverwalk community is located outside of Boston in a cottage court style neighborhood.
Rhode Island “Pocket Neighborhood”
Castle Street Cottages on Rope Walk Hill in East Greenwich, RI was named the 2019 Community of the Year in the Best in American Living™ Awards by the National Association of Home Builders.
Cottages at Back River Road
The Cottages at Back River Road in Dover, NH is a first-of-its-kind project in the Seacoast NH region.
In Resident-Owned Communities (ROCs), member-homeowners determine the future of the place they call home. Group decisions foster leadership and consensus, ownership stability promotes peace of mind, and money generated from fees goes right back into the community. The Tanglewood Park Cooperative in Keene joined ROC USA in 2019 and now has 332 participating households.
Tanglewood Park Cooperative
The Tanglewood Park Coop is a Resident-Owned Community in Keene, NH.
NH Community Loan Fund
The NH Community Loan Fund provides financial and leadership resources and works with ROC USA to build strong Resident-Owned Communities.
Whether it’s a group of twenty-somethings, a pair of senior citizens, or a handful of strangers-turned-housemates, shared living can provide community where living alone could not. Housemates build a special kind of community that is only built by people living under the same roof. Shared housing decreases the need for individual units, fights loneliness and boosts health, and requires fewer resources per capita. Community living spaces invite conversation and collaboration while individual rooms provide privacy. Implementing shared housing requires no additional infrastructure and can be rapidly rolled out. If you’re interested in helping the housing crisis, consider sharing your home with someone new.
HomeShare Vermont
HomeShare Vermont has worked to create community and compatible matches for over 40 years.
Sharing Housing
Sharing Housing has two sites: one for resources such as books, videos, blogs, and worksheets, and another for the organization itself.
Shared Housing Institute
The Shared Housing Institute has resources for housemates and community organizers.
Adaptive reuse and prefabricated elements seem like they should be on opposite ends of the housing materials spectrum. Adaptive reuse prioritizes using existing structures and materials while “prefab” construction relies on building elements assembled offsite. But, while one method focuses on the old and the other focuses on the new, both methods aim for efficiency. Efficiency can be in many forms: timeliness; affordability; energy consumption; materials use, extraction, and disposal; labor; land development; climate resilience; and more. For example, adaptively reusing a building reduces the amount of raw material, carbon emissions, and land use in comparison to traditional construction. Alternately, prefabricated structures save time, labor, and material waste because elements are designed for replicability and built offsite. Even though these processes are vastly different, both are paths to a shared goal: housing.
BuildUP
Students at the BuildUP school in Birmingham, AL are taught construction skills as they remodel blighted homes which they have the option to move in to and eventually buy.
The Bluebird Project
The Bluebird Project was started by two teachers who decided to do something about the housing crisis in Conway, NH.
Sticker shock: the feeling of when a housing solution is way more expensive than expected. This hurdle can be a real barrier to people trying to finance housing solutions. Luckily, financial tools are available.
NH Housing
NH Housing provides financial resources to homebuyers, renters, and people struggling to find appropriate housing.
NH Community Loan Fund
The NH Community Loan Fund provides loans, coaching, and resources to marginalized people and communities.
Contoocook Housing Trust
Contoocook Housing Trust provides homebuyer loan assistance and rental programs for low-middle income renters.
Savings Bank of Walpole
Savings Bank of Walpole provides a variety of housing loan programs designed to fit the customer’s individual project.
Lighthouse Credit Union
Lighthouse Credit Union continues to provide Northeast Credit Union’s designated Home Renovation Loans that can be used for additions, Accessory Dwelling Units, and other upgrades.
Service Credit Union
Service Credit Union offers Accessory Dwelling Unit-specific mortgage-assistance options.
Have a suggestion? Send a message to SWRPC staff Chloe Gross at [email protected].
