On a mission to welcome people home

Diane did not like having to ask for help. Not at all.

She was on her own with two kids after her marriage ended. She had moved her aging parents to a mobile home in the area, so she could care for them, and her youngest was still in school. She had been a stay-at-home mom, working in her husband’s business — but all that was gone.

She got a job, working six days and two nights, but without health insurance or paid time off. Her pay could not cover the cost of rent and utilities in the Upper Valley, where vacancy rates are notoriously low and housing costs notoriously high.

Twin Pines Housing provided the safety net her family needed — in the form of an affordable two-bedroom apartment in the community where Diane’s son was in school.

“It took away the gloom and doom and some of the fear. That was a relief,” Diane said.

When Diane was diagnosed with a life-threatening congenital disorder, the one thing she did not have to worry about was losing her family’s housing. “It was peaceful to know that somebody had my back.”

Having stable housing helped her focus on regaining her health, and on securing a new job as a rehab technician in a physical therapy practice. Her new job offers insurance and sick time.

“Work is important to me, and providing for my children is important to me, and I know I am going to get stronger,” Diane said. “If it was not for Twin Pines’ help, I don’t know what would have happened. Would we be homeless? Maybe.”