
NASHUA, NH – A candidate for governor, a big city mayor, two housing advocates, an Executive Council candidate, a State Senator, and a state representative walk into an apartment building. This sounds like a setup for a joke but it was an actual event held in Nashua to highlight the serious issues of affordable housing facing New Hampshire.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joyce Craig and Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess met with the team from NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire (NWSNH) to tour the new apartment building at 249 Main Street. the group also included Executive Council candidate Melanie Levesque, State Senator Cindy Rosenwald, and State Representative Laura Telerski.
It took years to transform the long-vacant lot downtown into a new apartment complex and multiple participants to complete. During the tour, the first tenants were moving into their apartments. Those moves and the new building represent a small victory in the face of a huge challenge for New Hampshire.
New Hampshire faces a housing crisis, as Craig cited statistics that foretell the story.
“We will require 60,000 new housing units to keep up with demand on the state by 2030. We have to build now,” Craig said. The scale and scope of the problem are dramatically testing public and private resources and capabilities. It is part of a national crisis that is particularly large in the Granite State.
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Rent and residential real estate inflation combined with a shortfall in available housing stock is impacting all the communities in the state. The gap between supply and future demand, hedge funds and large investor competition for inventory, restrictive city and town land use restrictions, and an aging population are all factors building this perfect storm in the NH housing market.
NWSNH is the developer of the Main Street project. According to Neighborhood Development Director Jennifer Vadney, the solution to the housing shortage requires, “resources, expertise and cooperation from across the New Hampshire economy.” For this project, they cobbled together financing from more than a dozen public and private sources and had assistance from the city and state governments to facilitate the project.
The are 34 apartments in the building. Rents include a combination of subsidized and 11 market-rate units. Rents for low-income tenants are calculated as a percentage of AMI ( Area Medium Income). The low-income subsidy agreement will be maintained for 100 years in contrast to the typical 10-year term for such agreements. Stewart Property Management will manage the building for the developer.
The transformation from a vacant lot to much-needed housing included assistance from the city. They were involved in the purchase of the property and expedited permitting. Donchess said he is pleased with the results but acknowledges it is a small step in solving the issue
He especially noted the challenge young people with good-paying jobs are running into the difficult market realities of finding an affordable home in Nashua.
“Right now the bottom of the market is $400,000 and it used to be $200,000 not that long ago,” Donchess said.
NH State Rep. Laura Telerski referenced legislative efforts to ease the shortage and to increase affordable housing inventory.
“We are trying to connect unused town properties to developers and giving them incentives to build, to get that property back on the tax rolls and to be able to move things through the planning process and streamline things faster, to have a partnership to get affordable housing built in communities,” Telerski said.
Craig says the issue of housing is the top priority among New Hampshire residents she talks to as she campaigns.
”As I’m traveling through the state, housing is the number one issue that I am hearing about. The cost of housing and how buying a first-time home is out of reach for so many people right now,” Craig said. “This is about keeping our kids living in New Hampshire so they can afford to live here. Our seniors and hard-working families and I would hope that elected officials see the value of that in every community in our state.”