Rena Audy
“My little palace.”
That’s how Rena Audy refers to her affordable one-bedroom apartment located in the former Uptown Motel building at NeighborWorks® Greater Manchester’s Straw Mansion Apartments.
“It’s perfect,” said Audy. “The appliances are nice, it’s just the right size and the people at Stewart Property Management (the third-party management company employed by NeighborWorks® Greater Manchester to oversee all of our 209 affordable apartments) are just wonderful — they really look out for me. I couldn’t be happier.”
But Audy’s outlook wasn’t always so rosy.
In 2000 she became totally disabled, her diagnoses including degenerative disk disease, severe nerve damage, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and heart problems, among others. Her problems were compounded as she lost her sources of income when her condition forced her to quit her nursing and hair styling jobs. To afford food and medicine in the 14-month interim before her federal disability insurance kicked in, she said she had to sell off 90 percent of her possessions.
At the time she was living in an apartment managed by Stewart Property Management (SPM) on Eastern Avenue in Manchester. By 2005, however, SPM, who had shown understanding with regard to her financial difficulties, was no longer managing her apartment complex.
With Audy struggling to make ends meet, insult was soon added to injury when her apartment was flooded. Now she had to move. But she had no money. Audy was referred to NeighborWorks® Greater Manchester, which provided her with an apartment at the recently opened Straw Mansion Apartments.
“Without them,” she said, “I would have been homeless. There are no words…”
While still living with her many heath problems, which often require frequent stays in the hospital, Audy remains upbeat, and grateful. “I’m not going to feel sorry for myself,” she said. That’s not who Rena is.