Plans for a senior housing development on Main Street in Jaffrey will be revisited in February to determine whether the project should be reconsidered.
Keith Thibault, chief development officer at Southwestern Community Services, said the project’s viability will be analyzed after New Hampshire Housing decides whether or not to change its Qualified Action Plan, the application which determines which projects will be funded in a given year.
“The key to any decision will be how NH Housing’s Qualified Allocation Plan is – or is not – modified for the 2017 round of funding,” said Thibault. “If we are fortunate, changes will be made that would allow the Jaffrey application to be more competitive.”
SCS had approached the town in March with plans to construct a three-story, 24-unit senior housing complex, situated in the parking lot next to St. Patrick School.
SCS had all town approvals in place, when it was found out this fall that a key funding source had fallen through.
The key funding source for the project was a $3.5 million NH Housing federal tax credit, a credit that represented more than two-thirds of the money needed to build the project.
Thibault said SCS had also applied for a $500,000 Community Block Grant and a $550,000 loan from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, to round out funding for the project.
The block grant had already been approved, according to Thibault, but both applications were withdrawn after the NH Housing tax credit wasn’t approved as all funding mechanisms were critical for the project to move forward.
The senior housing project scored well on the QAP according to Thibault, but was edged out by projects with segments of non-age restricted housing, something the application gives preference to.
Thibault said SCS hopes the preference for non-age restricted housing will be eliminated after future NH Housing discussions.
NH Housing will hold a public discussion on proposed changes to the QAP schedule on Jan. 5. Thibault hopes to hear of proposed changes by the end of January.