MANCHESTER — Returning veterans living on the street or struggling with the transition to civilian life will have a new home in Manchester.

Ground breaking took place Tuesday on the Somerville Street Veterans FIRST Housing Project, a three-story building with 26 apartments that will provide temporary and permanent housing to honorably-discharged veterans and their families who are homeless.

The $5 million project will also provide the support services veterans need, program leaders said.

It is Harbor Homes Inc. of Nashua's first project in Manchester. The non-profit community-benefit agency already operates two facilities with a combined 60 units where homeless veterans and their families can live for up to two years.

Both are running waiting lists which likely will grow as more veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, city and program officials said.

“The people who are applying for these programs are more and more people who are coming back from the current conflicts and that's a bigger and bigger percentage of people with post-traumatic stress disorder and that eventually brings them on a road to hopelessness,” Harbor Homes president and chief executive officer Peter Kelleher said.

Four of the 26 units at the 335 Somerville St. building will be reserved for those who repeatedly find themselves homeless, preferably veterans, Kelleher said.

Besides offering veterans housing and support services, the new building benefits the community by replacing an unoccupied warehouse that had become a blight on the neighborhood, New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority Executive Director Dan J. Christon said.

NH Housing Finance Authority provided $1 million in financing for the project. The city of Manchester gave $300,000 to the effort, which also has funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other public and private sources.

Mayor Ted Gatsas hailed the public-private endeavor.

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Kathryn Marchocki may be reached at kmarchocki@unionleader.com.
“It's time we started recognizing our veterans and taking care of them,” Mayor Ted Gatsas said, citing the price they pay for the freedoms the nation enjoys.

Ward 7 Alderman William Shea added: “It is an uplifting type of activity and it will help all the residents.”

Construction will begin next week and should be done in April.

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Kathryn Marchocki may be reached at kmarchocki@unionleader.com.