Innovative Solutions for the Housing Crisis in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is suffering a critical shortage of housing that is causing hardship and pain for individuals, families, communities, and businesses across the State. The shortage of housing has caused prices for home ownership and rentals to become unaffordable for people from all walks of life, including young couples seeking to plant roots in NH, seniors hoping to age in place, and employees planning to take jobs with NH businesses. The shortage has become so severe that our communities are facing dramatic increases in homelessness, and housing instability.
The Initiative for Housing Policy and Practice’s Housing We Need program works with partners across the State to facilitate research, education, dialogue, and collaboration:
Research
The Initiative for Housing Policy and Practice leads the New Hampshire Zoning Atlas (NHZA) project, with the support of NH Housing and the State Office of Planning and Development. You can find the updated interactive Atlas, datasets, and more NHZA resources here.
Since 2020, Saint Anselm College has conducted an annual statewide survey of voter attitudes toward New Hampshire’s housing crisis. Results from the most recent survey can be found here.
Education
The Initiative for Housing Policy and Practice engages experts and community leaders in order to bring awareness to the affordable housing crisis--its causes, effects, and possible solutions.
The Initiative regularly hosts housing experts to present to the community such as speakers from the Pew Charitable Trust to discuss: “How Are Policymakers Improving Access to Lower-Cost Homes?” Check out highlights from this event here.
Engagement
Since 2018, Saint Anselm College has hosted an annual Housing We Need Roundtable Forum that brings together stakeholders to discuss solutions to the state’s housing crisis. The Forum includes panel and roundtable discussions, keynote presentations like this one from Dr. Jim O'Connell, and the Home Matters Awards from Housing Action NH.
The Initiative for Housing Policy and Practice also hosts discussions for subsets of stakeholders to help them tackle housing-related challenges they face. This includes building and fire code officials, NH Realtors, and recovery housing advocates. Email us at ihpp@anselm.edu for help in convening stakeholder dialogues.
Resources
New Hampshire Zoning Atlas. The Zoning Atlas is a comprehensive database and interactive online map cataloging and portraying zoning district-level land use regulations affecting housing construction across the entire land area of the state. This tool is a collaboration of the Center for Ethics in Society at Saint Anselm College, NH Housing, the NH Department of Business & Economic Affairs, and the National Zoning Atlas project.
Municipal Land Use Regulation Survey. The Municipal Land Use Regulation Survey contains data on land use regulations, economic development tools, housing policies, and planning & and development techniques adopted by each of New Hampshire's 234 municipalities; nine village districts with zoning authority; and Coos County, which has zoning authority over 23 unincorporated places in the North Country. This tool is updated annually by the Office of Planning & Development at the NH Department of Business & Economic Affairs.
New Hampshire Housing Toolbox. The NH Housing Toolbox contains 20 planning and zoning strategies to increase housing opportunities in New Hampshire. This tool is a collaboration of the NH Department of Business & Economic Affairs (BEA) and the state’s nine Regional Planning Commissions.
"How Do We Talk About Housing". This guide published by NH Housing outlines a community-led, bottom-up approach to engagement and advocacy for increasing housing opportunities across New Hampshire and beyond.
"Housing Commissions in New Hampshire”. This guide published by NH Housing outlines the benefits of creating a municipal housing commission and the process for doing so.