SEDC Partners with Newburyport Savings Bank on Financing Workforce Housing - The Cottages at Back River Road

John Randolph owns two assisted living facilities in Durham, Harmony Homes at Hickory Pond and Harmony Homes by the Bay.  After operating these businesses for several years, he had difficulty in recruiting new employees and retaining staff.  John surveyed the staff to understand challenges they were facing.  He discovered employees’ biggest problem was the lack of affordable housing in the area. Some employees were traveling over an hour to get to work, either because they could not find affordable housing nearby or because they had to drop their children off at daycare before heading to work. Initially his response was to increase pay rates and benefits by 21%, but even this was not enough. John recruited his wife Maggie to help design and develop the area adjacent to Harmony on the Bay. They constructed seven 1-bedroom apartments and a childcare center for the staff. They put together an in-house construction team to keep costs down.  Rents were restricted to 30% of an employee’s pay and they estimate that the development can save their employees approximately $400 a month in rent and $600 per month in childcare expenses.  

While constructing these, John acquired a 7.16 acre parcel of land in Dover.  The land was originally zoned for a duplex development for 55 and over housing, but the Randolphs worked extensively with the Planning Department and Planning Board to rezone the property for the larger development. This development, designed by Maggie Randolph, will consist of 44 single-family homes, each one about 400 square feet. 
Newburyport Savings Bank and Strafford Economic Development Corporation are providing financial and programmatic support for the project, named The Cottages at Back River Road. 

SEDC’s Dennis McCann said: “This is a modern adaptation of a tradition in New England dating back to at least the 1790’s. Early industrial revolution business owners built housing to attract workers to the “New World” to staff their newly constructed mills.  The Harmony housing concepts allow the assisted living centers to keep prices affordable while providing good discretionary income to their employees.  Everybody wins.”