Courtesy photo The Habitat for Humainity Store on Amherst St. in Nashua.

NASHUA – The Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity ReStore is officially shutting up shop after the coronavirus pandemic caused financial strain on the nonprofit.

Executive Director Scott Slattery said donations basically dried up overnight once the pandemic hit and Governor Chris Sununu’s stay-at-home order went into effect. Now that donations are not coming as they were before the pandemic, Habitat’s board of directors had to make the difficult decision to close the ReStore for good.

The pandemic’s financial impact on Habitat has led to them vacating their Nashua office location, moving their offices to Hollis. That move, to 10 Clinton Dr., was made last Friday.

“Unfortunately, the coronavirus has had a devastating financial impact upon us,” Slattery said.

Habitat had already been forced to make layoffs and furlough employees. Originally, Slattery believed the hope was to reopen the ReStore located at 352 Amherst St. The ReStore has been operating in Nashua for nearly seven years.

Slattery said they will be out of the building by the end of July.

“We’re going to start liquidating the inventory, having massive blow-out sales starting this weekend and it’ll be Saturdays and Sundays throughout the month of June,” Slattery said.

Announcements regarding the sale will appear on Habitat’s website and social media pages. The number of volunteers and customers in the store at any one time will be limited, and patrons will be required to wear facemasks.

Despite some changes happening to Habitat’s physical locations, their mission has not changed in that they are still focused on building homes for low- and moderate-income families in Greater Nashua. Right now, their Wilton project is nearly complete and Habitat has broken ground and started on their new veterans project on Paxton Terrace in Nashua. Slattery said most of the Nashua site work has been done with crews trucking in fill and getting ready to put a foundation in the ground.

Slattery said that Habitat is ramping up its Aging in Place program in which volunteers perform work for homeowners in the Nashua area to modify their houses so they can remain in their homes and moving into an assisted living or nursing home facility.

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com

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