When Dick Weaver became Executive Director of Laconia Housing six years ago, he thought his job was going to be maintaining the status quo. He quickly realized that New Hampshire was changing, and that Laconia Housing should change to continue providingaffordable housing and support services for seniors and people with disability, in order to promote better life quality for the whole community. Weaver said, “I have made policy changes to bring consistency, stability, and order to the entire process.”
Specifically, he restructured the financing and the raising of capital to improve and update all the existing Laconia Housing properties. To make things easier for prospective tenants, he made a standard application for all senior housing options. He has worked to make all departments more efficient by modernizing their paperwork process. Laconia Housing is now as paperless as they can be and this has effectively sped up the time to process and approve applications.
Working alongside Weaver, Tom Cochran, Deputy Executive Director, is happy to bring his business management expertise to managing a nonprofit. He praises the efficiency of Laconia Housing Staff and is proud of the team’s cohesiveness and staff longevity. Cochran has placed a lot of emphasis on teamwork regardless of the department so that they make decisions based on what is best for the Agency.
Nancy Shannon, RN, who has 43 years of nursing experience said, “This is the most rewarding nursing job I’ve ever had in my life.” Julie Partridge, RSC/FSSC Residence Service Coordinator and Inspection Specialist, agrees: “I love working with the tenants and staff. This sounds like a Greeting Card but if I can help one person on any given day then my day is not wasted.”
Going forward, Weaver belives that Laconia Housing will remain an important part of the community. He wants Laconia Housing to work more directly with the city and use their relationship as a vehicle to refurbish and create urban renewal and redevelopment. In the future, Weaver also hopes to expand the service offer beyond Laconia to the whole state of New Hampshire.