Latest news with #HousingAppealsBoard
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The lack of housing in New Hampshire is hurting families. Are state senators listening?
Housing is in short supply throughout New Hampshire. (Photo by Dana Wormald/New Hampshire Bulletin) In the most recent UNH Granite State Poll, New Hampshire residents said housing is their top concern. More than three times as many people cited housing compared to the next most important issue, taxes. Yes, we are experiencing a statewide crisis of housing affordability. This crisis constrains economic growth and community vitality. Yet the New Hampshire Senate is poised to vote on a state budget that turns its back on housing, cutting funding for important programs that help our cities and towns meet their housing challenges and missing opportunities to help developers build housing that Granite Staters can afford. The Housing Champions program was created by the Legislature in 2023 with a $5 million appropriation to provide grants to cities and towns to help them voluntarily change their zoning ordinances to be more 'housing friendly.' Communities that made these changes were recognized as 'Housing Champions' and are eligible for additional funding, such as grants for infrastructure improvements. So far, 18 communities have achieved this distinction, and others are poised to follow. Despite this celebrated success, the Senate has proposed zeroing out this program. This shortsighted decision takes away the principal incentive ('carrots, not sticks') for our cities and towns to make important zoning changes. Earlier this year, the Senate passed Senate Bill 81 (then tabled it to add it to the budget) increasing the annual allocation to the state's affordable housing trust fund from $5 million to $10 million and making an additional appropriation of $25 million to the trust fund. The annual increase acknowledges the rising cost of building homes — the same money just doesn't go as far as it once did. The additional one-time appropriation acknowledges the housing deficit we're in — we need to build many thousands more homes just to meet current demand and help our economy grow. Even with good zoning, the developments that house our workforce require significant financial resources. Witness the several developments that have stalled recently in Concord because of higher costs. Senators gave themselves the opportunity to add SB 81 to the budget and then ignored it. Finally, the Senate has proposed reducing funding to the Housing Appeals Board, an innovative approach to addressing appeals of local planning and zoning decisions. The Legislature created the fast-track of the Housing Appeals Board in 2020 recognizing the delays that housing developments faced when local decisions were appealed to court. Time is money, and delays add to development costs. The Housing Appeals Board has been nationally recognized as a light-touch, small-government approach, and it has shown to be an effective and efficient means of hearing appeals. In the midst of a housing crisis, it is nonsensical to pull back on a proven way to speed up final decisions on development proposals. Our current lack of sufficient housing is a drag on economic growth and is hurting New Hampshire's families. It's time for the Senate to put its money — our money — where its mouth is: fund these vital housing programs and help move the Granite State out of its current housing crisis and toward a better, brighter future.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Child advocate, Housing Appeals Board seek relief from House budget
Child Advocate Cassandra Sanchez and leaders of the Housing Appeals Board made separate pleas Monday for their survival after a House-approved state budget proposal had recommended elimination of both. Leadership on the House Finance Committee said it considered the child advocate to be duplicative of the work that in-house inquiries made of the state Division of Children, Youth and Families by an ombudsman in the Department of Health and Human Services.. State Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, asked Sanchez to identify a 'unique' case that her staff does that HHS reviewers do not do. She pointed to Bledsoe Academy, a juvenile treatment facility in Gallatin, Tennessee. Two years ago, Sanchez and an associate discovered two New Hampshire boys living there that she said had operated 'on a culture of fear and intimidation.' A seven-page update in the summer of 2023 revealed that children had been forced to watch movies described as pornographic. Both New Hampshire boys said a female staffer in her 20s had a relationship with one of their peers and told colleagues, 'She is mine.' After the two New Hampshire boys met with state inspectors, a Bledsoe staff member threatened to beat up one of the boys and told associates, 'A snitch is coming.' Two days before leaving Bledsoe, the boy said someone turned off the light when he was in the bathroom and entered the stall he was in, out of sight of cameras, and beat him. 'Because of our advocacy, we got those kids returned to New Hampshire safely to a facility that is run well,' Sanchez said. Less expensive option? House budget writers concluded the Housing Appeals Board was run well but was costing taxpayers more than $10,000 a case when these matters cost just over $1,000 apiece in the court system. Elizabeth Menard, the board's clerk and only employee, said, 'A cost for case analysis does not demonstrate the value of the Housing Appeals Board.' Board Chairman David J. Rogers said he worked in the court system for years as a lawyer and it takes much longer for appellants to get justice there than it does before the three-person Housing Appeals Board. 'It's longer by a factor of three to four months,' Rogers said. The courts can delay civil cases in favor of the criminal docket that is time sensitive while the appeals board gets every case done within five months, he added. Senate Deputy Democratic Leader Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua maintained this is the worst time to get rid of the appeals board the Legislature created five years ago to give property owners and developers a more affordable, quicker option than filing a lawsuit. Since then, Menard said its decisions have affected nearly 2,750 housing units. 'We are in the middle of a housing crisis,' Rosenwald said. What's Next: The Senate Finance Committee has until mid-May to recommend its own version of the state budget Prospects: Every odd-numbered year a two-year spending plan is the only bill that has to pass, but it will require a lot of compromise between what Gov. Kelly Ayotte, the House and eventually the Senate will propose in competing plans. klandrigan@
