Avesta campaign for critical-need senior housing enters final year

Photo / Maureen Milliken Dana Totman, prsident and CEO of Avesta Housing, speaks at the opening of the Fox School senior apartments in South Paris in 2019. The housing development nonprofit is entering the third year of its Silver Hearth Fund, which is raising $2 million to help provide senior housing in areas where there is criticial need.

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By Staff

Avesta Housing's $2 million three-year campaign to build affordable housing for seniors in areas where there's a critical need got a boost to begin its final year.

The Mascoma Bank Foundation, based in Lebanon, N.H., awarded a $15,000 grant to the Portland-based nonprofit's Silver Hearth Fund, which Avesta launched in 2019. The grant is the latest of 35 donations pledged to the campaign, which has raised $1.4 million and expects to hit its goal by the end of the year.

The Silver Hearth Fund fundraising initiative is focused on addressing the acute affordable housing needs of older adults living in Avesta’s market areas in Maine and New Hampshire.

The priorities of the the Silver Hearth Fund are to develop new affordable housing units for low-income seniors, expand essential support services and programs and rehabilitate older Avesta properties.

Corporate donors also include Gorham Savings Bank, Bangor Savings Bank, AARP Foundation, Acadia Insurance, Archetype Architects, Bank of America, Clark Insurance, HUB Furniture, Kennebunk Savings Bank, KeyBank, Maine Community Bancorp, MEMIC, NBT, Norway Savings Bank, People’s United, Wright-Ryan Construction and Zachau Construction. There are also a number of individual donors.

The Mascoma Bank Foundation supports long-term benefits communities where the bank, with 26 locations, operates in western New Hampshire, Vermont and Portland.

"We are proud to support Avesta Housing in their important mission of improving lives and strengthening communities by promoting and providing quality affordable homes for people in need," Ed Kerrigan, foundation chair, said in a news release. "Together we can work to impact the greater Portland area’s long-term future.”

When the program was launched in 2019, Dana Totman, president and CEO of Avesta said, "The number of applicants on wait lists for our affordable senior properties is staggering, especially relative to the very few vacancies that become available annually.

“Once these individuals have obtained a home, they often eventually require additional support services in order to age in place safely and with dignity. We all have a responsibility to step up and do more to help older adults in need," he said.

Tuesday he said he's honored that the Mascoma Bank Foundation and its trustees "are willing to partner with Avesta’s commitment to address the critical housing needs of our community. Working together we will be able to do so much more for those in need.”