workforce housing

Across the state, folks are talking about the impact of New Hampshire’s housing crisis. Renters are struggling to compete for the small number of available units, prospective homebuyers are being priced out of the market, young people are unable to put down roots, older residents are stuck in too-large homes, and employers are challenged to recruit and retain a qualified workforce. The effects of the housing market touch all of us.

Housing is a hot issue. In New Hampshire and throughout the country, scarce available housing is putting a strain on working families and preventing businesses from recruiting and retaining workers. Impacts from the housing crisis are rippling through communities. Studying housing issues is a core-function of NH’s Regional Planning Commissions (RPCs) and through 2022, each RPC has been hard at work preparing a Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) aimed at addressing this issue. These updates are a function of RPCs per NH State Statute, RSA 36:47.

Summer days may linger into September, but here at NHMA, we are ready to get back to business!  The fall is our busiest time for member workshops and training programs, as staff have been planning and preparing over the summer to get them all ready.

New Hampshire faces a housing shortage that is affecting urban and rural areas alike. There is growing recognition that a lack of housing options is stifling our economy, harming businesses’ ability to recruit employees, placing financial hardship on many working and middle-class families, and, in some cases, leading to housing insecurity and homelessness. This recognition is backed up by the data. Over the past couple of years, rental vacancies have hovered in the range of 1-2%, well below the 5% that’s recognized as an indicator of a balanced market.

New Hampshire has long faced a housing shortage that threatens to constrict economic growth in the state and change the very character of the communities where we live. Many municipal employees and young adults can no longer afford to live in the communities where they work or grew up. To address this problem, in 2008 the New Hampshire Legislature passed a law that requires every community to provide “reasonable and realistic opportunities" for the development of affordable housing. But this obligation is not new law. In 1991 the New Hampshire Supreme Court said the same thing.