The Issues: Housing

Granite Staters are facing a crunch in housing in every age group, and in every type of housing. There is not enough of it, and people are struggling to afford what they have. The state legislature agrees it's a problem, and yet keeps killing the bulk of bills that are filed year after year to rectify the situation. And there is a core group of conservative representatives who keep trying to chip away at the rights of tenants in the state. Basically, it's an exhausting issue that has such incredibly widespread consequences for ignoring. By most estimates, we are lacking 20,000+ housing units in the state, and that number is expected to grow drastically in the next decade if major steps aren't made up and down the legislative ladder.

Like many other states in the country, New Hampshire has seen a sharp increase in unhoused residents over the last decade. The North Country is no exception. The last year has been a tumultuous reminder that we are not immune to the issues facing the rest of the state. The response from local leadership has not only been lacking, it's been disappointing. We have community members needing shelter, and the reality is that trying to change who they are to make them more appealing 

As a renter myself, I have submitted testimony on various bills over the last two legislative sessions on the needs of renters. But it goes so far beyond that, because seniors are struggling to keep up with their property taxes as towns drastically raise their rates to contend with the cost of keeping schools running and to pay for infrastructure problems that have been pushed off for decades and can no longer be ignored. Families of median income can no longer afford to buy a home, forcing them to stay in the rental market for much longer. In the North Country, we are seeing all three of these issues concurrently. Funding opportunities for affordable housing has been drying up for decades, and getting new housing projects off the ground are time consuming, extremely costly, and require the lining up of a dozen or more factors at the right time to equal the right total to make them happen. I want to make it an enticing opportunity for towns to invest in smaller projects, mostly ADUs (auxiliary dwelling units) on already existing properties, loosening requirements for them to be built, and creating tax incentives for on-site homeowners who choose to develop this style rental property. I would also want to look at the possibility of ADU approval being on grounds of long-term rentals, allowing our already existing residents a chance to (finally) find stable housing.

I also want to create a robust, easily accessible, and easily understood Renter Bill of Rights, outlining exactly what currently exists in our legislation and creating an easier path for reporting landlord issues to the state, with an ultimate goal of creating a landlord blacklist. We have many tenant rights in the state but it's difficult to know them or know what our options are for recourse, and often tenants will bend on issues that they are actually protected from simply because they are unsure what their rights are. This might be unpopular, which I understand from the perspective of the owner. But you know what else is unpopular? Toying with the security of people's living situation. Enough is enough. Renters deserve safety just as homeowners do.

I also want to focus energy on an emerging path to homeownership that many under 50 have taken notice of: shared equity housing. It's an interesting model that creates value in the lasting exchange of ownership, rather than as a nest egg to cash in and collect from when moving on from the property. It will help keep properties affordable, and is geared especially towards first-time homebuyers, who are facing nothing short of a steep uphill battle contending with a market that has doubled in price in the last five years. Tying equity of the home to the property itself is an investment in taking care of our community, allowing locals to move on from the rental market and tying properties in the region to the locals who keep it running.

​Finally, I want to make it easier for seniors to access discounted property tax rates and grants to help them cover the gaps. From my own work in housing at AHEAD, helping homeowners apply for assistance from the Homeowner Assistance Fund, I know there are so, so many who are receiving only Social Security and are forced to pay 25-35% or more of their annual income to property taxes alone. It's simply unsustainable. Many of these folks do qualify for some sort or reprieve, and yet don't know how to apply for it or when the deadlines are to be considered for such assistance. Yes, this does push the tax burden back onto working homeowners. But with a combination of state education funding reform, property tax reform, a boost to the Rooms and Meals Tax, and the untapped possibility of marijuana sales revenue, we can not only offset these costs but lower our overall property tax rates. And our seniors get to stay in their homes longer, which reduces the stress on subsidized housing needs and creates a more socially healthy community of people safely residing in their own homes for longer and with less burden.

Housing is not one-size-fits-all and every town has different needs and different kinds of opportunities to meet its residents' needs. As a state that has such diverse municipalities, we need to take an equally diverse approach to solving the problem. Many things that will help the North Country will help other areas of the state and can be scaled for different sized towns. We have to stay engaged with what is and is not working and try a multi-angled approach if we are going to truly tackle the housing crisis. I'm determined to work with federal, state, and local officials and experienced housing advocates and researchers to push forward an array of bills to help us solve the issue head-on.