Today’s Greeter: Robert Louf welcomed members to Bow Rotary

 

Total of 41

 

Logo Fines: Jeannie Gerulskis for arriving in slow motion.  Jon Ruggles for R&T Electric
 

Happy Bucks:    

Raffle Winner:  Sandy Eldredge

 

Program:

Rosemary M. Heard is President of the Concord Area Trust for Community Housing, (CATCH). But, her love affair with architecture began over 40 years ago when she was growing up in Ireland as a young woman. From the beginning she wanted to be an architect, attracted to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. She worked as a draftsman for an architect in Ireland and was accepted to study architecture at the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art in London. Unfortunately, financial circumstances prohibited her ability to fulfill that dream. Her lack of an architecture education didn’t impede her pursuit of creating and working with buildings, however. She loves to quote Louis Sullivan’s “Form Follows Function”.

Before coming to CATCH, she was Senior Vice President of Asset Management with MassDevelopment, prior to which she spent fourteen years working with the Amoskeag Company.

Her specific achievements include:

• Her tireless efforts on behalf of those in our communities who are struggling to achieve home ownership and who have been in the past, and at times continue to be, denied access to living in a well-designed, well-built and well-maintained home.
• Her utilization of architects and the design professions for the creation of well planned and executed projects.
• Her leadership skills in bringing the affordable housing community together to work in a better coordinated manner. 
• Her leadership in running CATCH in a way that educates first time home buyers about the process of buying a home.
• Her leadership in accessing financing to make possible the projects that serve CATCH's clients.
• Her vision that enables CATCH to combine affordable housing with market rate housing to make possible the financing necessary to fund CATCH's projects while creating communities of healthy, heterogeneous members.
• Numerous other New Hampshire committees and boards she serves on pertaining to design, construction and management of affordable housing. 

Through a leadership program offered by NeighborWorks America and Harvard’s Kennedy School, Rosemary spearheaded the inception and growth of Alliance Asset Management. Alliance is a not-for-profit property management company that now manages all of CATCH’s properties, as well as providing that service for others throughout New Hampshire and Maine.

 

Rosemary also co-led the creation of a member organization, HOMEteam, with NeighborWorks of Southern New Hampshire, which now provides homebuyer education and financial classes to 80 percent of the state’s population.

 

Rosemary received an advocacy award from Housing Action NH in 2017. CATCH was also recently recognized by New Hampshire Business Review at their 2016 Business Excellence Awards. Rosemary was awarded the "Excellence in Nonprofit" for a small organization at the event. CATCH was also named the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s Nonprofit of the Year in the Chamber’s 2015 Pinnacle Awards. (4)

 

In 2014, CATCH was given The Corporate Fund Nonprofit Management Award presented in honor of Walter J. Dunfey, and was also named a TD Bank  “Housing for Everyone” grant winner. (2)

CATCH’s redevelopment of the Endicott Hotel into market-rate apartments and commercial space was recognized by Intown Concord as the “Best New Downtown Face” of 2014 and was awarded a 2014 Merit Award from Plan NH. (2)

In 2013, CATCH was named the number three fastest-growing female-led nonprofit in the state by Business New Hampshire Magazine and Kathy Kittle, CATCH’s Chief Financial Officer, was recognized by the NH Business Review as the top financial executive in the small nonprofit category for 2014. (2)

Rosemary was named the “Heart of Your City” by Citizens Bank and WMUR-TV in 2012. (1)
 

New Hampshire Housing presented CATCH with its Bringing You Home award in 2011 for the first phase of Bow Highlands in Bow, NH and again in 2012 for Mennino Place in downtown Concord. (2)

 

She is currently the Chair of the Municipal Housing Commission for the City of Concord and serves on the Public Policy Committee for the National NeighborWorks Association.

 

Since Rosemary started working with CATCH in 2006, its net assets have grown from $3 million to nearly $50 million, and its staff has expanded from six to over 30 dedicated colleagues who serve over 600 adults and children in Concord, Franklin and Bow. CATCH pays attention to the Quality of Life of its inhabitants, provides training and educational services, has residents serve as members of the Board of Directors, and now is co-mingling affordable with market rate units to achieve a blended mix of economic as well as other diversity throughout the community.

 

CATCH is building neighborhoods where people want to live, not just because they can afford to live there.

 

CATCH even has a project in Bow I am sure Rosemary will tell us about.

Rosemary is an Honorary Member of the New Hampshire Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Citation:

 

Website to reference for more information: www.catchhousing.org

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Dick Swett