‘From a dive to a respectful place’: How a landlord and a homeless couple created common ground

May 21, 2023

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MANCHESTER, NH – Angel Alvarez thought a boarding house he bought at 168 Merrimack St. would be the end of him. It turned out the investment property he purchased last November was a drug house, one that came alive with droves of people between the wee hours of 1 and 3 a.m.

People who were not renting rooms in the building were entering through the front door or being let in through a rear entrance to buy drugs. And then they would stay, heading into the communal bathrooms, damaging them and at times, overdosing inside.

Firefighters were regularly called to the three-story, white-sided building less than a block away from the downtown station, providing medical care for the night visitors and oftentimes, reviving them from overdoses.

Alvarez, who is a full-time Nashua firefighter, describes himself as relentless, someone who just will not give up. But late last year, he was ready to admit defeat. He and his brothers had camped outside the building in his truck in the early morning hours to drive out the drug addicts and dealers, some hardcore, who were invading his building. Each night, he’d go to bed at 8 a.m., set the alarm at 1 a.m. and head to the 168 Merrimack St. building.

Alvarez, who is married with a wife and two children, was ready to move into one of the rooms himself to try to restore order to his building when he read an article about Schonna Green, the city's new director of Homelessness Initiatives, and gave her a call.

"He's my angel," Green said.

As Alvarez recalls, it was three days before Christmas when he connected with Green. She was trying to find accommodations for a married couple who had been living in the woods on the West Side near the Merrimack River. The city was evicting them from the illegal cabin they had built on a friend's property.

"Oh, I think this is a Christmas miracle," Alvarez recalled Green told him.

"She said he's really handy and maybe he could help out around my building."

Alvarez was skeptical at first. "But I always say everyone deserves a second chance," he said. He told Schonna he first had to meet them in person.

The couple, who declined to be interviewed for this story, agreed to move into the building and become Alavarez's building managers. It turns out the husband had been in construction all his life – the wooden structure he built in the woods had heat and running water, according to Alvarez. The wife is talented as well, working alongside him in construction. She can operate heavy equipment as well, Alvarez said.

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Alvarez told them what he needed to be done in the building and gave them the authority to manage it the way they saw fit. He had just installed a high-tech security camera system, one where he could talk through a loudspeaker to any unwanted visitor. He bought a cell phone for the wife so she could download the app. That way, she would get the alerts directly on her phone and see what was happening.

Alvarez also established new rules for occupancy which included no visitors after 10 p.m. Tenants were given individual keys for the communal bathrooms, which were fitted with doors that automatically closed and locked upon leaving.

An alarmed door was added to the second floor, a problem area where some tenants were letting in unwanted guests. If opened, the alarm sounded throughout the building.

Within a very short amount of time, with the new building managers, rules, and security system, the drug dealers and users were gone.

Alvarez said his building managers are always thanking him, but he tells them that he is the one who should be thanking them for all their hard work.

"They’ve been more of a blessing to me than me to them even though they say otherwise," he said. He said the couple, who are in their late 30s, are very private and don't want to be in the limelight.

"He's amazing at construction," Alvarez said. "He has been in construction his whole life." He's been trying to get him to agree to come work for his contracting business. "I told him come work for me. I’ll make you the construction site supervisor for all my sites."

Alvarez said he hasn't accepted the job offer. "I don't try to push it," he said. "He's already done enough here and if he wants to live out his life here, I’m fine with that."

He says he knows when the time is right, the couple is going to do amazing in the future because "both of them are super talented."

Alvarez said both had their licenses suspended so he paid to reinstate them and gave them an old truck he uses in the winter for snowplowing to use when they need to buy items to maintain the building.

The building, which Alvarez put $60,000 into for security and upgrading the building, is fully occupied and the easiest of all his properties to manage, he said. He charges his tenants $845 a month for the units, which come furnished and with all utilities included, and each unit comes with an all-electric kitchenette. Presently, there are no vacancies.

He evicted about seven tenants. Under New Hampshire law, he said a landlord is allowed within 90 days to evict tenants in rooming houses, if they violate the rules, without having to go to court.

One tenant, realizing he could be ousted for violating the rules by letting people inside after hours, moved his business outdoors, selling drugs from his car parked right in front of the building. But Alvarez’ new security cameras recorded it all, soon police were involved and that troublesome tenant was gone as well.

Alvarez said there was another tenant who he repeatedly talked with about his issues, giving him chances to follow the rules. Finally, however, things came to a head and it was time to lock him out.

Alvarez said he doesn't like to evict anyone, especially those living in the rooming house. (He owns another six-unit building on Taylor Street). He knows anyone who he evicts will likely end up on the streets.

At the same time, however, he said sometimes someone is too far gone on drugs that "if I leave them there, that one bad apple will start ruining it for everyone else who is trying to get their life together. It's a double-edge sword for me."

When the day came to lockout that last disruptive tenant, a major snowstorm hit. Alvarez said he didn't have the heart to throw him out into the street that day so he told his building managers that it could wait until Monday.

"My brother says I’m too soft-hearted," he laughed. But, he said, he wouldn't be able to sleep knowing he tossed someone out in the middle of a snowstorm.

Daniel Thompson, who has lived in the boarding house for three years, said it is "98 percent better than it was" before Alvarez bought it. "It went from a dive to a really respectful place," he said. "There are no more headaches in the building. You can enjoy it."

The Merrimack Street building and Alvarez were meant for each other.

Alvarez was born in Chicago to a 16-year-old mother. At the age of one, they moved to Brooklyn, N.Y.

"I grew up as the son of a single mother on welfare and I’ve been kicked out of apartments a couple times," he said.

His single mom didn't give him up and she struggled to pay the rent on the earnings she made from dead-end retail jobs.

"We ended up living in a rooming house with a common bathroom," he said, not unlike his Merrimack Street building. "I remember all of that."

At the age of 11, they moved to Nashua.

When he was 16 , he spent the summer in Chicago with his uncle who owned three investment properties. "I learned construction because the whole summer we were just flipping apartments. He taught me how to do construction so when I got home I got a job in construction."

His uncle had planted the bug in his ear about real estate. But first, at age 18, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. At the age of 20, while in Arkansas, he bought his first property, a new single family home costing $140,000. In the service, he said, most people rent because of the frequent transfers.

He rented out two rooms in the house – which paid his mortgage. He left the Air Force after serving five years but then served another five years in the Air National Guard, leaving military life behind for good in 2010.

When he did, he sold the Arkansas property and made a $50,000 profit which he used to buy a two-unit building in Nashua. He fixed that up and sold it for $400,000 1 ½ years later. He had paid $180,000 for it originally.

In 2011, Nashua hired him as a firefighter, but he continued to purchase investment properties and today has 19 buildings in several communities including Manchester, Nashua, Laconia and Franklin.

He also has a construction company and property management company, managing a total of 150 apartments, including his and other owners.

Green said she, as well as the city welfare office and other agencies, frequently call on Alvarez for his support.

"I call him Angel because he's an example of the kind of landlord in our city who genuinely wants to help," she said.

Green said when she met with the homeless couple and saw what they had constructed, she immediately thought the husband would be a great maintenance man for Alvarez.

"It was just a wooden structure he put together, but I knew the person who did that had some skills," she said.

She said connecting the couple with Alvarez was a winning combination.

"Something that at first was really negative for him (Alvarez) finally turned around," she said. "It goes to show a for-profit developer can effect change for our city if they just reach out."

Green said Alvarez has invested both his time and his money in the building to make it a nice place.

As hard as it has been at times, Alvarez said he wants to do more projects like the Merrimack Street property. He said anyone who has a boarding house for sale or who is interested in partnering with him on a similar project should text him at 603-943-9191.

Alvarez, she said, has opened the door a few times for the homeless, twice for people coming out of the warming shelter.

"He's been a godsend," she said.

Just recently, a battered woman needing a place to be safe relocated to the Merrimack Street building.

"She said the place is amazing and that she hasn't felt that safe in years," Alvarez said.

Green said she is always interested in working with landlords. She said any landlord interested in renting at fair market rates, as set by HUD, and "becoming part of the solution" should give her a call at 603-792-3859.