A new analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts finds that high housing costs in New Hampshire are driving some residents into poverty. The state ranked 10th in a list of states with the highest share of poverty caused by housing costs.
At around 7.3%, the rate of people living in poverty in New Hampshire is relatively low compared to the rest of the country, but the state stands out for how housing costs have impacted residents. The analysis reports that 16% of overall poverty is caused by housing costs and for child poverty in the state it’s at 22%.
This is not news to Jeremy Lamb who works for the Cross Roads House shelter in Portsmouth. He gets calls daily from people looking for an open shelter bed.
“I'm noticing more and more that there are a lot of younger and a lot of older folks [calling to get on the shelter waitlist],” Lamb said.
People 58 and older make up 40% of the people in the state who are living in poverty. Granite Staters 18-22 years old are the next largest age group at 11% of the population.
Having a fixed income makes it difficult for many older adults to be flexible when costs go up. Recently, Lamb worked with a client who became homeless at 83 when they could no longer keep up with rental costs.
“They burned through their savings, they burned through their retirement,” Lamb said. “They watched everything dwindle down to absolutely nothing.”
The Pew report focuses specifically on rent as a driver of poverty. According to New Hampshire Housing, renters would need to earn $80,440 a year to afford the statewide median rent of $2,011 per month. In addition to the shortage of rental units, the high costs of purchasing a home also affect rental prices.
“If folks can't leave the rental market and want to, that just keeps that pressure on the rental market,” said Nick Taylor, the director at Housing Action NH.
Taylor said the state’s housing shortage of rentals and homes for sale dates back to the Great Recession in 2008 when the economy buckled.
“A lot of builders [left] the workforce, and we never picked back up,” Taylor said. “So you saw demand increase without supply increasing.”
While construction has picked back up in recent years, Taylor said the decades of under-building continue to make housing out of reach for many people.
Stacy Zemon, 66, of Peterborough is one of the Granite Staters who struggled finding affordable housing. She spent three months in a homeless shelter in Keene this year while she sent out housing applications. She lives on her monthly $1,550 social security checks, and she finally found a place she could afford with her fixed income.
“I’m one of the fortunate ones who gets to live in a nice apartment complex that is rent subsidized,” Zemon said. “I pay for rent a third of my income.”
Pew’s analysis offers solutions to the shortage, including updating zoning codes to be less restrictive for multifamily and single-family homes, revising permitting processes and providing more financing for housing developments. Researchers wrote that new housing supply, combined with public assistance, can ease the crisis. Taylor of Housing Action NH agrees.
“If we can do both of those things, we'll be in a situation where people can get the help that they need when they need it,” Taylor said. “And we'll have more folks who are able to afford a home without needing public intervention or public investment in it.”
