Lydia's House of Hope

Lydia’s House of Hope is designed to empower our residents; to move them in a positive direction with accountability, support, and responsibility…..to transition them from homelessness to wholeness.

Lydias House of Hope is a 365-day transitional housing program located in Somersworth, NH. for homeless women and children in the Seacoast Area.

We serve the surrounding communities including the greater part of New Hampshire and Southern Maine. We raised $450,000 in funding and purchased this home in August 2016. We opened for our first residents in January of 2017.

Our Mission

Passion, Dedication, Love

The Mission here at Lydia’s House of Hope is to train and equip homeless and poverty stricken woman and children with the necessary skills, counseling, and support needed to move out of their chronic homeless situation. We work to provide them sustainable self-supporting, and independent living, while at the same time, providing a safe environment where residents are equipped, encouraged, and empowered to reach their highest potential.

We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the big dream of ending homelessness by helping those who are hopeless to achieve a state of independence, sustainability, and productivity.

Lydias House of Hope

The program takes place in a highly supervised residential setting accommodating 25 woman and children. All aspects of the program are multi-purposed to provide classroom and practical training. Every resident at Lydias House of Hope participates in a minimum year long four-phase program. Each resident works with a case manager to individually tailor and design a plan to help them progress in their journey. We provide over 30 programs each month, including weekly classes in everything from parenting, and 12-step recovery, to job interview skills, budgeting, writing skills and cooking. We have two case managers on staff, a house supervisor, a programming coordinator, and 24 hour live-in supervision.

Our History

The journey of Lydia’s House of Hope started from a realization that most woman and children suffering with poverty and homelessness were from a family who suffered as well. It became clear while working with the homeless through the Seeds of Faith organization, that many we served were born into poverty. As we served meals at Crossroads House, and furnished meals for those living in tents, cars, and anywhere we could find people in need of socks, shoes, food, etc., we started to piece together that there was a consistent theme of families in crisis. Many who we served were from the same family. Whether they were mothers, children, or grandmothers, the issue of generational homeless was very clear to us. The next step was to start the long but worthwhile journey to open a transitional housing facility to help these families, who were mostly woman and children. Our goal was to get them back on their feet; to provide them the tools and support they needed to break the cycle of poverty. After much labor and efforts to raise awareness of what seemed like a hidden and silent issue, our house came to fruition through community support, fundraising, and hard work and determination.

It was named Lydia’s House of Hope after the loving memory of a very courageous and special little girl who lost her hard fought struggle with cancer. While dealing with this cruel and painful disease, 9 year old Lydia stayed determined, upbeat and full of compassion and understanding as she went through her own battle for life. Her dad and stepmom, helped to bring this house to life in honor of their beautiful little girl who represented the definition of bravery. It takes being brave, determined and honest to change your life. Here we would like to help do that for others, one family at a time.

The worst poverty isn’t about not having enough money to survive. Real poverty is when there is no one in the world who loves you. When there is no other human to make you feel like you matter. As if you aren’t worth the air you breathe. Poverty of love is the worst thing you can be deprived of. – Paige Dearth