Faces of affordable housing: Meet Kylie Goss of Tilton

Editor’s note: Affordable housing is about everyone in our community being able to afford a home that supports good physical, financial, and emotional well-being. This occasional series produced by Lakes Region Community Developers, Lakes Region Community Services, and Laconia Housing, features stories of people who live in affordable housing in the Lakes Region to demonstrate the diversity of people who thrive in affordable housing and how it enriches our communities.

Story Produced by Laconia Sun, a Member of

Kylie Goss is a tenant at Lochmere Meadows, an affordable housing complex in Tilton put up by Lakes Region Community Developers. Kylie grew up in the Lakes Region and has been here her entire life, except for one year she spent living in Florida.

When Kylie was younger, she struggled with substance use disorder. She is proud that she has been in recovery for eight years. She explains, “What got me out of it was finding out I was going to have a child. I tried a couple times to get sober, but nothing worked until I found out I was pregnant.” She was living in Florida at that time.

As soon as she learned a baby was on the way, Kylie packed up and headed back home to the Lakes Region to be closer to family. Three years later, she and her boyfriend had another child. Though she was in long-term recovery, things were not going well. She had been in an unhealthy relationship for many years. In 2018, she realized she needed to make a change. “So I moved in with my parents,” she said.

Kylie lived with her parents for nine months before she was able to get her own apartment at Lochmere Meadows in 2019. It was a welcome change. Although her parents were supportive, Kylie found it difficult to be back under her parents’ roof.

Now Kylie is thriving on her own. She has two beautiful kids, continues to maintain her sobriety, and works full time at a job in construction where she enjoys building houses. The company she works for has become family to her. She is thankful to have support like that around her, including the support she gets from living at Lochmere Meadows.

“It gives us a place to call home,” Kylie says. “It has made it easier knowing that I have a place to live and if I ever did lose my job, I wouldn’t be evicted because my rent is based off my income. It made life easier knowing that I have this place.”

She also appreciates what she gets for the rent that she pays. “It’s a nice apartment,” Kylie says of her two-bedroom, townhouse-style apartment. “And my neighbors are awesome. It’s nice to have the space and community for me and my kids.”

Kylie enjoys giving back by serving as a tenant representative on LRCD’s board of directors. She likes learning about LRCD’s new projects and all the work that goes into developing affordable housing.

“There’s a lot of families they help, so it’s awesome to be a part of that,” she says.

Kylie reflected how the cost of regular rentals is so high, and it doesn’t make sense to her that when LRCD tries to put up new, affordable communities, some people get upset.

“It’s hard to change the stigma about affordable housing,” Kylie says. “But it has gotten me through some of the hardest times of my life and given us a roof over our head and a safe place to call home. So, without that, I don’t really know where we’d be.”

The Kylie of today is a lot different from the Kylie of 2019 who first moved into Lochmere Meadows.

“I was in a bad place. And I’ve come out of my shell so much,” Kylie says. “A few years ago, I didn’t even want to get a job because I had so much PTSD from my relationship. I was just in a bad place mentally. It’s funny to see how much has changed.”

Today, Kylie has her sights set on goals for her future. Already she has advanced at her construction job. She started in demolition and has since learned the skills and proven herself to be an asset on the team building houses. The sky’s the limit from there.

She also plans to move on from Lochmere Meadows soon, because she wants to give someone else the opportunity for it to help them. She says, “I feel like it’s definitely been a big part of me being able to move up in the world. It’s nice knowing that there are people out there that are willing to help families in need.”

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.