Claudia Altemus and Steve Abbott

Claudia Altemus and Steve Abbott moved from apartment to apartment – five times in 12 years – with their two young sons, as rent prices continued to rise. Each new apartment meant settling down again, making it homey and livable for their family. Steve worked in social services and Claudia is a musician and has worked part-time elsewhere. She home schools their childrem, so keeping up with increasing rents was often challenging.

Then Claudia attended an information session at CATCH’s Home Buyer Education Center. Recalling that first session, Claudia says, “I cried when I left. For the first time, I wondered if the possibility did exist that we could own a home.”

For the next two years, Claudia and Steve put all their energy and effort into their dream. They completed Home Buyer Education Classes, met one-on-one with a CATCH housing counselor, improved their credit scores, set a strategy to increase their income and saved down payment money through CATCH’s IDA program.

Claudia and Steven then bought their first home through the Homes Downtown inititiave. In purchasing though Homes Downtown, Claudia and Steve will earn equity on their home and if they sell the home in the future, they agree to sell at a below market price. This preserves the affordability of the home for the next family. Claudia sees this as a contribution to the family. “If we can help the next family who never thought they could own a home to buy, so much the better.”

”The comprehensiveness of CATCH’s programs is what did it for us,” Steve comments. “Any one thing alone – the education, IDA program, or the Homes Downtown program – would not have been enough. Our housing counseling at CATCH literally walked us through the whole process, step by step and that was invaluable.”

Claudia says, “Shelter is the most basic human right after food. We own a home now, and this is something we never thought could happen. It is not a small thing that CATCH helped us do…owning a home has made a huge difference in our lives.”

Dana Lizotte:
A CATCH Resident Perspective

Before moving into her CATCH apartment, Dana Lizotte was living with her mom in Canterbury where she shared a room with her young son, Quentin. She is very happy to have a CATCH apartment for a number of reasons. Having grown up in Penacook and Boscawen, Dana is happy to be in her old school district and the commute to her job at Concord Eye Care is not very long at all. Dana also likes living nearer to her family. Most importantly, she is thrilled with the space in her apartment: Quentin now has his own room and as Dana says, “I now have some ‘Dana time!’”