Celebrates Statewide Impact on Housing, Community Centers, Small Businesses and Child Care at Governor and Council Breakfast
CONCORD – The Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) made 117 investments in community-based projects, infusing $25.6 million into community development, economic development, and clean energy projects throughout New Hampshire in State Fiscal Year 2024. Information on CDFA’s impact, as well as organizational and program highlights and activities, are detailed in its newly published 2024 Annual Report.
Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington hosted the November 13 Governor and Council breakfast at CDFA’s office in Concord. CDFA’s Executive Director Katherine Easterly Martey had the opportunity to present the organization’s impact on New Hampshire’s housing crisis and critical infrastructure like community centers, as well as its work to advance statewide initiatives including the Council on Housing Stability, Community Navigator Pilot Program in support of small businesses and family-based child care.
“This past year brought new opportunities for leveraging a significant influx of federal resources to support New Hampshire residents, businesses and our communities, while maintaining our focus on reducing barriers to accessing resources and serving as a consistent funding partner to critical community projects,” states Katherine Easterly Martey, Executive Director, CDFA. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting communities as they work towards becoming economically and socially resilient.”
Organizations funded by CDFA in State Fiscal Year 2024 delivered critical services to their communities, provided new jobs, created healthy and safe affordable housing, helped strengthen downtowns, improved community facilities, and increased energy efficiency. Notably, initiatives supported by CDFA reported the following impacts last fiscal year:
- Assisted or served 85,927 people;
- Rehabbed, preserved or created 257 housing units;
- Created or retained 366 jobs;
- Supported 300 micro businesses; and
- Developed or rehabbed 729,120 square feet.
CDFA has also significantly expanded the number of resources being deployed to serve new partners, including the development and expansion of programs.
CDFA undertook several significant initiatives in State Fiscal Year 2024 to align with its strategic goals, support critical statewide initiatives, and increase the organization’s capacity to assist municipal, nonprofit and business partners to advance community-based projects.
Most notable, CDFA continued to lead the Council on Housing Stability. The Council released its 2024 Annual Report and Year in Review, highlighting progress made towards realizing the goals, objectives and implementation activities outlined in its three-year Strategic Plan adopted in June 2021. Highlights of the Council’s collective work includes: unanimously adopting the State’s Fair Share Housing Production Model; stabilizing permanent housing for 271 individuals through the Affordable Housing Incentive Program; developing a training and resource library for all service providers in New Hampshire working to prevent homelessness; and adopting strategies for communities to address encampments.
Program Highlights
CDFA administered new allocations of federal funds that enabled the organization to launch new programs which supported underserved New Hampshire small businesses, significantly increased investments in community centers and provided technical assistance and resources to family child care providers. New program development is based on CDFA’s more than 40 years of administrative experience deploying resources into New Hampshire communities in a meaningful and impactful way. These programs provide the opportunity to explore new approaches, build on best practices and grow the number of partners we engage with and support.
In State Fiscal Year 2024, CDFA’s programmatic highlights include:
- Investing in Community Centers: Community Center Investment Program resources support the enhancement of indoor and outdoor facilities, as well as the construction of new spaces, that have proven to be inclusive, open to the public, and foster a culture of health and wellbeing in the communities they serve. This investment of $23 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds is an opportunity to make deeper impacts within New Hampshire communities with one-time, strategic investments in critical infrastructure. The program has supported a total of 27 community centers across New Hampshire.
Community centers help support strong, resilient, and inclusive communities. They are an integral part of New Hampshire’s towns and cities to create connections, offer access to diverse programming, provide social services, encourage civic engagement and act as emergency hubs.
- Completing the Community Navigator Pilot Program: The Community Navigator Pilot Program was an American Rescue Plan initiative designed to reduce barriers that underrepresented and underserved small businesses and entrepreneurs often face in accessing the programs they need to recover, grow, or start their businesses. CDFA received $2.5 million in funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration in November 2021 to administer the two-year pilot program which concluded in State Fiscal Year 2024.
The program builds on years of dedicated work by small business technical assistance providers throughout the state and CDFA’s more than twenty-five years of investment in small business support. The best practices, key learnings and advancement of the program principles critical to increasing equitable access to resources for small businesses will continue to inform and impact CDFA’s work across New Hampshire.
New Hampshire’s program served more than 600 businesses within the two-year grant. Program partners were focused on assisting entrepreneurs with practical aspects of owning a business, such as record keeping, book keeping, budgeting, business planning, marketing, financial management, specific legal advice, or raising capital to achieve business goals. Outreach and engagement efforts within New Hampshire communities resulted in the program serving a diverse population that has been historically underserved. Read more about the impact of the program in New Hampshire.
- Launching the Statewide Family Child Care Pilot Program: CDFA was allocated resources by the NH Department of Health and Human Services to support family-based child care providers across New Hampshire. The Statewide Family Child Care Workforce Pilot Program focused efforts on supporting family-based child care providers to increase equitable access to quality, affordable child care for New Hampshire families.
The program invested $1.45 million to expand and retain access to family child care; funded nine regional partners to deliver services to family child care providers; engaged 225 aspiring and established family child care businesses; and leveraged the one-time funds to develop more than thirty tools and resources to be utilized statewide in supporting family child care providers in 2024 and beyond.
Underscoring many of these new programs is the opportunity to invest technical and financial resources to build capacity and resiliency within our communities. Collectively, these efforts have resulted in CDFA serving a more expansive base of communities, nonprofits and businesses across New Hampshire.
For more information on resources available to New Hampshire nonprofits, municipalities and businesses through CDFA’s programs, visit www.nhcdfa.org.
About the Community Development Finance Authority
The Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) is a statewide nonprofit public authority focused on maximizing the value and impact of community development, economic development and clean energy initiatives throughout New Hampshire. The organization leverages a variety of financial and technical resources, including the competitive deployment of grant, loan and equity programs. Those resources include New Hampshire state tax credits, federal Community Development Block Grant resources and the CDFA Clean Energy Fund. For more information about CDFA and its programs visit www.nhcdfa.org or call 603-226-2170.
###
