NASHUA — While Nashua homeowners, thanks to the strong economy, find themselves with more home equity, and therefore more wealth, than ever before, that robust economy has also created a housing shortage that is driving up home prices that many would-be buyers cannot afford, Mayor Jim Donchess said Wednesday in his annual State of the City address.
Delivered to members and guests of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce at Nashua Community College, the address touched upon dozens of topics, ranging from the housing issue and the 2022 state-mandated revaluation that resulted in a significant jump in property taxes to numerous ongoing infrastructure projects
Donchess cited the need to “fulfill our mission” by providing “the best environments in which our kids can learn and our teachers teach.”
He cited as a prime example the new Brian McCarthy Middle School, which is nearing completion and is scheduled to open for the 2024-25 school year.
The McCarthy school, located off of Buckmeadow Road in the city’s southwest quadrant, will replace Elm Street Middle School, which was built in the late 1930s as Nashua High School, became a junior high school in 1975 and, later, a middle school.
Donchess said city and school officials are also “excited about the expansion and renovations” recently completed at the two other middle schools, Pennichuck and Fairgrounds.
As for housing, Donchess listed a number of new and in-the-works projects aimed at mitigating the housing shortage.
Among them are Lofts 34 on Franklin Street, Riverside Landing off Bridge Street near the Hudson bridge, Monahan Manor — the former site of the Bronstein apartments at Central and Pine streets, the former Indian Head bank building on Main Street and the workforce housing project at Marshall and East Hollis streets.
Monahan Manor, Donchess said, consists of “216 new Nashua Housing Authority units,” nearly all of which are classified as affordable. High Street Flats just opened on High Street.
The city is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and local developers Bernie Plante and Blaylock Holdings to clean up and develop housing on the former 40-acre Mohawk Tannery site, which Donchess called a public-private partnership.
The plan calls for 550 housing units — a combination of apartments and condos and 10 acres of open space — to be built on the site once the cleanup is complete.
Affordable housing is also coming to the former NIMCO site in the city’s Millyard, Donchess said. Twenty percent of the roughly 300 apartments will be designated affordable.
Many of the apartment complexes, Donchess said, “will have views unlike any in Nashua,” making them “a great place for young people to live.”
On the subject of public safety, Donchess said city health officials and the police department recently formed a partnership the led to the creation of a social worker position in the police department.
The social worker would respond to police calls involving people “facing a mental health crisis,” Donchess said.
Another initiative that health officials have launched is seeking out homeless people to help them find a solution to the underlying cause of their homelessness, Donchess said.
Health department representatives located and spoke with 70 people in the program’s first three months. They helped eight people find jobs and got several others into drug treatment programs.
“This approach has had results,” Donchess said, adding that “we will not solve the problem of homelessness unless the state and federal governments take a more active role in providing housing for those in need.
“However, I believe we can continue to find ways at the local level to help our homeless residents stabilize their lives,” Donchess said.
