Keene's Housing Crunch

By Donna Moxley on Tuesday, May 9, 2006.

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Across the state, towns are grappling with the issue of housing.

Some towns don't want any more.

Many don't have enough.

And rents and housing prices are jumping through the roof.

Perhaps no place in the State is struggling with a lack of housing more than Keene

New construction of workforce and retirement housing is supposed to help ease the continual housing crunch in Keene, but it may just be scratching the surface.

The Keene Sentinel's Donna Moxley reports.

Ashley Reams graduated from Keene State in December.

And she got an entry-level position at the Keene Sentinel shortly after.

Her boyfriend Mark has worked in heating and air conditioning for 8 years.

Despite the two incomes, the couple struggles.

Their pay nearly a thousand dollars a month in rent, plus heat and other expenses.

They recently learned their apartment building is up for sale.

And since they don't have a lease, the couple has been looking for a new place for themselves, their cat, and their dog.

It hasn't been easy.

reams 4: "We work so hard and we can't even save money, and the place we're in, it's like ... we just want a step up, you know, we're not like college kids anymore. We don't party, we've been together two years now and we want a place to call home.

Finding an apartment in Keene has never been easy, according to Nancy Proctor.

She's the the general manager of the local Masiello Real Estate office.

Proctor3: "There hasn't been a lot, ever, of rental, because we have Keene State College that takes up the rentals. There's still a shortage of good affordable rentals. I've seen more rentals on the market this year but still not to meet the need that there is."

This tight market puts landlords in control.

Proctor: "I see a lot of ads in the paper 'no smokers no pets' ...... we get a family with a few kids and they have a couple dogs, it's really difficult."

Renters have seen other evidence of this "owner's market."

viands 2: "my overall impressions are that it's rather expensive, and the quality of housing is not so great. And in order to find a place that's suitable you need to look for a while, for a long time."

Angie Viands is a 31-year-old student at Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene.

She lives in a house with three other students, and pays $475 a month for rent and utilities.

viands 1: "when I moved here I saw that a lot of the houses I looked at were just substandard. the ceilings were really low, the paint was peeling, the house was in disrepair."

Blastos 5: "Some of them we even refer to as slumlords that truly take advantage of the situation."

That's Keene's Mayor, Michael Blastos.

Blastos 5 (continued): "I've got a choice, I can rent it to you as an individual and get $700 a month, let's say, or I can get 4 college kids or 4 friends that want to live together, probably can get 3 or 4 hundred bucks out of each kid each month. Now you're looking at, instead of $700 you're looking at $1,600. "

And, says Blastos, as a result neighborhoods are suffering.

With more individuals sharing houses, more cars end up parked in small driveways, spilling out onto lawns.

And dumpsters appear out front.

Nancy Proctor, the general manager at Masiello, said sometimes, depending on her client's situation, she'll try to talk them into buying.

But prices are still pretty high and the tight market doesn't help.

And there isn't much land available in Keene for new single family homes, so buyers may find themselves moving further away.

proctor 2: "That's been more of a problem for builders, finding tracts that they can do subdivisions with."

What's more, says Procter, developers find a lot of property isn't zoned for multi-family projects.

And local official say the city already has been developed near to its limit.

The whole scenario says Mayor Blastos hurts the city's future.

Blastos 4: "If you can't afford to live in a community you want to choose for your home, if you can't afford to buy a home or afford to pay the rents that are necessary to compete let's say with five students chipping in, then you're gonna move elsewhere, and we lose our youth that way and we lose our entry market, or entry-level employees that way."

A new dorm is opening up at Keene State and some planned public housing developments may take some of the pressure off.

But the Mayor admits those projects won't solve the local housing shortage.

blastos 3: "â€¦. We did a study about three years ago and it showed that Keene was short some 8-900 units within our city borders. Demand like that obviously creates such a need for apartments with the shortage being, it ends up being, a high rent district."

Mayor Blastos said the city is working on a new plan.

It would create zones in which developers could build homes more densely in exchange for leaving unbuildable land in permanent conservation.

For NHPR news, I'm Donna Moxley.