Everyone deserves a place to call home.

'I thought I was going to be homeless'

Facing eviction, New Hampshire residents find new homes with Avesta

Avesta Housing Resident Service Coordinator Jen Stilwell, left, with Sheena, a new resident at River Turn in Conway, N.H.


In December, residents of an apartment complex in east New Hampshire had to find affordable homes before their leases expired at the end of the year. The nonprofit association that ran the complex had dissolved, and the property was being sold. If they weren’t out by midnight on New Year’s Eve, they would be evicted.

After learning of their situation, Avesta Housing partnered with New Hampshire Housing to give the residents new homes at River Turn, our affordable housing community in Conway, N.H. Click below to read their story.

New members appointed to Board of Directors

L-R: Atiim Boykin, Diane Donaldson, Ben Frost, and Spencer Thibodeau

Four new members will join the Avesta Housing Board of Directors in April to help guide our work and advance our mission in the years ahead:


• Atiim Boykin, liaison for the Maine State Forensic Service in the Office of Behavioral Health/Department of Health and Human Services
  
• Diane Donaldson, senior vice president and team lead of southern Maine commercial lending for Bangor Savings Bank
  
• Ben Frost, president of proactive development at Rhode Island Housing and former deputy executive director and chief legal officer for New Hampshire Housing
  
• Spencer Thibodeau, assistant vice president and legal counsel at Unum and former deputy assistant secretary of intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy

“The broad range of personal and professional experiences that Atiim, Diane, Ben, and Spencer offer will bring unique energy to Avesta," said Avesta Housing President & CEO Jennifer Hawkins. "I'm so grateful they are willing to share their talents and time with us at such an exciting and important time for the organization.”

Click below to learn more about these exciting additions to our board.



John Egan joins Avesta as Director of Development

We are proud to announce that we have hired John Egan as our new Director of Development to lead Avesta’s real estate development team as they create and preserve affordable rental housing in Maine and New Hampshire.


John has nearly four decades of community development experience in Maine and Alaska as a developer, lender, investor, and owner. He comes to Avesta from the Genesis Community Loan Fund, where he provided technical guidance and facilitation on the development process as well as the preservation of rural affordable rental properties financed by USDA.

Avesta calls for protection of affordable housing funding and for changes to harmful policies

Our team has been actively engaging state and federal legislators to ensure continued support and funding for affordable housing and services to people in need.

Earlier this month, President & CEO Jennifer Hawkins and Evernorth Director of Communications Meg McCroskey Blum visited the offices of Maine’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer and Meg advocated for protection of federal HOME and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds; common-sense reform to the Build America, Buy America (BABA) program; and the release of Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) funds.

Click here to read a recent Portland Press Herald article on how the BABA program is impeding affordable housing development for Avesta and other developers.

Click here to learn how changes to a federal direct loan program will limit the ability of rural Americans to obtain housing loans and make it more difficult for nonprofit developers like Avesta to create more affordable housing.

Meg McCroskey Blum, left, and Jennifer Hawkins at Sen. Susan Collins' office in Washington, D.C.

Avesta and partners receive Maine Preservation award

On March 18, Maine Preservation held a ceremony for its annual Honor Awards in Portland.

This year’s honorees include the Dr. Milton Wedgewood House in Lewiston, which was restored by Avesta Housing in partnership with Lewiston Housing as part of the development of the Choice Wedgewood affordable housing campus.

Click below to watch a video from the event. (Wedgewood is featured at the 19:42 mark.)

Wedgewood development partners display the Maine Preservation award for the Dr. Milton Wedgewood House (L-R): Penn Lindsay, Lewiston Housing; Meg Bunke, Kaplan Thompson Architects (KTA); Simon Hebert, Hebert Construction; Seric Kapp, Avesta Housing; Nancy Barba, Barba + Wheelock Architects; Phil Kaplan, KTA; Tim Morrison, Barba + Wheelock Architects; and Victor Wright, The Heritage Co.

Real estate staff chosen for rural housing preservation cohort

Our real estate team has been chosen to participate in Enterprise's Rural Housing Preservation Academy cohort.

The four-month cohort consists of seven virtual sessions and is designed to help rural housing providers preserve federally financed housing and extend affordability requirements.


 As of the end of 2025, there were 315 properties in rural Maine that were financed by USDA’s Section 515 mortgage program, and as many as two-thirds of those will be at risk of losing their affordability covenants in the next four to five years.