Compass House to Provide Sober Living for Women

Lakes Region Community Developers (LRCD), Horizons Counseling Center, and Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region are partnering to create Compass House, a group home for women in recovery. It will be located at 658 Union Avenue in Laconia and will accommodate up to eight women at a time.  

LRCD will renovate the building, which previously served as its headquarters. Horizons will operate Compass House with support from Navigating Recovery. Renovations will be done by Martini Northern of Portsmouth and are scheduled to be complete early this winter.

Compass House will provide a congregate living environment for women who have completed a residential treatment program for substance use disorder. Guests at Compass House must not have a household income over 80% of the area median income. Horizons plans to start accepting applications for Compass House this winter.

“This project is a great example of the work we seek to do under our expanded mission,” said Carmen Lorentz, LRCD’s executive director. “We have almost 30 years of real estate development experience, and we are pleased to put this expertise to work to meet a wider range of housing and community development needs in the region, in partnership with other organizations.”

LRCD has long focused on developing rental homes for low income families and now also develops affordable starter homes and community facilities such as Compass House.

“Many women in recovery in our community, especially women of low income, do not have access to a safe, affordable, and supportive housing option,” said Jacqui Abikoff, executive director of Horizons Counseling Center. “Compass House will fill this long-standing gap in recovery supports in the Lakes Region.”

Each guest at Compass House will be paired with a trained recovery coach from Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region, to create, follow, and update a recovery wellness plan to serve as a roadmap toward independent living.

Financing for Compass House is provided by the www.distillersshowcase.com/pappy-2019 via a special appropriation that the NH Legislature made to the state’s Affordable Housing Fund in 2017, specifically to increase housing options for people in recovery from substance use disorder or those experiencing a mental illness. The NH Women’s Foundation also provided a grant for furnishings at Compass House.

Pictured From left: Carmen Lorentz, executive director of Lakes Region Community Developers; Jacqui Abikoff, executive director of Horizons Counseling Center; and Daisy Pierce, executive director of Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region in front of the future home of Compass House on Union Ave in Laconia.