Two days before Elisabeth Benoit and her family were evicted from their Storrs Street apartment, their belongings filled the four rooms and they had no means to move it out.

A trailer would cost money that they didn’t have to spend, and a storage unit with monthly fees was out of the question. When the day to vacate came, everyone – Benoit, her husband, mom and teenage son – packed up whatever they could carry and left behind everything else. Couches, beds, dressers, items they spent years amassing, were gone.

Then a bill for thousands of dollars of damages came, mostly for trash removal – or the cost of disposing of the belongings they had nowhere to bring.

“We left half of our stuff behind, and that’s what they were calling the trash. That was our stuff because we couldn’t get it in time,” said Debra Burns, Benoit’s mother. “We had to rent a trailer to come and get the stuff, and we didn’t have the money to do that. So that’s where it all started.”

What happened next was a domino effect – excessive debt led to poor credit. Soon, rental applications for new apartments were denied as they bounced between shelters over the course of last year.

That was until the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness offered them an apartment in one of their new properties on Pleasant Street. But the stroke of luck for Benoit’s family came with a catch – their stay would be temporary, for six months to be exact, as the Coalition planned to completely renovate the property into additional units, stripping it down to its studs. Tenants couldn’t stay while such extensive work was taking place.

They knew the day would come at the end of February. But when the end of the month rolled around, Benoit and her family found themselves facing homelessness yet again. Now they’re displaced throughout Concord, with Burns and Benoit’s teenaged son living with family. Meanwhile, Benoit, her husband and their dog, Willow, bought a tent and set up shelter in the woods.

“We feel like we’ve been taken away from our family,” said Benoit. “I don’t want to be out there but, like, we’ve got nowhere else to go.”

While the Coalition works to help house clients in the Concord area with few rental units available, finding a permanent place to live can be like piecing together a complicated puzzle with moving parts. The Benoits had a temporary solution. Now, they’re back to square one.

After considering the most effective ways to provide necessary, affordable housing that the city so desperately needs, the non-profit is now shifting gears. Instead of converting historic homes into single-unit apartments, where renovations can hit expensive roadblocks like lead removal processes, they’re now looking to add new housing to their portfolio with factory-built, modular cottage homes.

Moving into Pleasant Street

When Benoit’s father died over a decade ago, her family of three quickly became four. Benoit, her husband and son decided to live with her mom. Together the family unit lived on Storrs Street. And together, they were evicted.

Homelessness, especially when unexpected, can mean bouncing between shelters or sleeping intermittently on friend and family’s couches. Benoit learned this first-hand.

They lived in one place in Northwood. They then came back to the Concord area. And as they moved from place to place as Benoit’s mom watched her daughter try a new medication for anxiety. Soon, her 16-year-old grandson was struggling with anxiety while trying to keep up in school.

Moving into Pleasant Street meant they could restore their routine. Benoit’s son could go to Concord High School and Willow, the black lab mix, could also live with them.

When they arrived at Pleasant Street, they signed a month-to-month lease with the Coalition. They had to pay rent and also began to work with a case manager who would help them search for new apartments, according to Greg Lessard, the director of real estate and asset management for the Coalition.

But when a monthly check of disability, for Benoit’s husband, is the family’s only source of income, options are limited. Especially when searching for a three-bedroom apartment in the Concord area – where the median rent is about $1,500.

Their housing search is only further complicated by their dog, as pets often add an additional fee to monthly rents or are not allowed by many landlords.

Now as Benoit and her husband sleep on an air mattress in their tent, buying propane weekly to stay warm in the spring chill, they are upset with the organization that’s meant to help people experiencing homelessness.

Now, in their recent experience with homelessness, instead of moving together as a group, it has meant breaking up a family.

For the Coalition – offering temporary shelter to a family throughout the winter, albeit with an inherent move-out date – was the best they had to offer since a permanent solution was not possible at the property. Barriers like cost, availability, timing and limited resources make finding solutions to this enduring problem even more difficult.

“No good deed goes unpunished,” said Lessard. “We were working with them and trying to find them housing; they have their own responsibility to do the same. Because of the difficulties of that transition, I would be very reluctant to ever do that again.”

Changing strategy

To give people experiencing homelessness a stronger chance at renting an apartment – including security deposits, credit checks and referrals from previous landlords – the Coalition became a landlord.

Over the past few years, the non-profit has purchased, and renovated several properties across Concord – converting them into one-bedroom apartments to be rented to those experiencing chronic homelessness in the community.

Recently, a home with an adjacent carriage house on Pleasant Street was the latest addition to the group’s portfolio.

The current structure consists of two apartments – one with two bedrooms, the other with four – that would be renovated into six individual units.

But to do so requires various funding sources and planning board approval, alongside construction time. It’s a costly project as well, with price per unit averaging $305,000, according to Lessard.

“Redevelopment, renovations, it is very, very time-consuming. There’s so many more moving parts,” he said.

And these moving parts gave Benoit and her family a false sense of hope that they could stay in the unit up until the day construction would start.

“They’re not doing anything over there,” said Burns. “They could have left us there.”

But with funding secured, the Coalition can now move on renovations. On Monday, construction will begin with a month-long project for lead abatement. When the project is complete, hopefully in a year’s time, alongside an additional property on South State Street, 16 individuals will have housing.

Benoit and her family will not be eligible, as the property will consist of only one-bedroom apartments.

As these construction projects are underway, the Coalition plans to shift gears to a more cost-effective model for their next housing endeavor – prefabricated modular homes.

Elsewhere it’s proven to be a more cost-effective step towards providing long-term permanent, supportive housing. Each cottage home is priced closer to $200,000 per unit.

“It appears that there’s far less moving parts to get it done,” said Lessard. “Concord knows that they need a lot more units, and so this just seems like a way to get a lot more units relatively quickly. Quality units, attractive looking units, at less cost.”

Benoit’s not sure what will happen with their family in the next few months. Her son is set to finish the school year in June. She hopes by then, he’s not joining her and her husband in their tent.

For now they’ve set up a spot with a porch area and wall around their tent to help keep Willow nearby. They have a small grill and buy propane weekly – for both food and warmth. And they’ve found a close-by charging spot to make sure they can be reached. These are makeshift solutions to what they hope is a temporary stay.

“I don’t want to be out there,” she said. “But we’ve got nowhere else to go.”

]]>