PHOTO: Avesta Housing staff and guests cut the ribbon on July 15 to 6A & 6B Collyer Brook Road in Gray, Maine, the first two properties for sale under Avesta’s new “A Path Forward” program for moderate-income homebuyers. L-R: Diane Donaldson, senior vice president/commercial banking team lead, Bangor Savings Bank; Eric Boucher, senior vice president of finance and administration, Avesta Housing; Jeanne Christie, District 1 representative, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree; Gavin Robinson, senior vice president/community relations manager and public finance officer, Bangor Savings Bank; Kim Twitchell, Avesta Housing board of directors; Jim Elkins, Avesta Housing board of directors; Kelly Dorsey, senior vice president/treasury and business services manager, Mascoma Bank; Jennifer Hawkins, president and CEO, Avesta Housing; Andrew Cook, senior vice president/Maine market leader, Mascoma Bank; Nicole DiGeronimo, director, Avesta Housing Homeownership + Financial Counseling; Gail Kezer, regional representative, U.S. Sen. Angus King; Madisen Corcoran, housing counselor, Avesta Housing Homeownership + Financial Counseling; and Rain Daugherty, housing counselor, Avesta Housing Homeownership + Financial Counseling
GRAY, Maine — Avesta Housing, the largest nonprofit affordable housing provider in northern New England, celebrated the listing of its first homes through the new “A Path Forward” program on July 15 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Collyer Brook Road that marked the beginning of a new pathway to homeownership for Maine residents.
Administered by Avesta’s Homeownership + Financial Counseling department, “A Path Forward – Homeownership for ME” is a new line of business that complements Avesta’s primary focus of developing safe, quality, affordable rental homes. Avesta acquires and rehabilitates properties that are in disrepair, then sells them at below-market prices to qualifying households. Philanthropic funding from Bangor Savings Bank and Mascoma Bank helped make the program possible.
“‘A Path Forward’ is a program built out of both urgency and hope,” Nicole DiGeronimo, director of the Homeownership + Financial Counseling department, said at the ribbon cutting. “Urgency, because Maine’s housing market continues to make it difficult for middle-income residents to find safe, stable homes within reach. Hope, because we believe that by preserving and rehabilitating existing housing, we can create real opportunities for homeownership where few exist.”
