Key housing priorities
Gov. Kelly Ayotte, Republican:
- Signed laws that reduce zoning barriers to new home construction
- Signed the state budget which included a shorter turnaround time for state agencies to review housing permits
- Says she plans to distribute federal money towards affordable housing development
- More details on Ayotte’s approach below
Cinde Warmington, Democrat:
- Pledges to use state dollars to fund and incentivize affordable housing construction
- Says she’ll ban private equity from buying homes and raising rents
- Vows to undo law signed by Ayotte allowing landlords to evict tenants at the end of their lease
- More details on Warmington’s approach below
Ayotte’s housing record
Ayotte has said that the high cost of housing is the state’s number one economic issue. One solution she’s focused on during her first term in office is increasing housing construction in the state. The housing shortage has driven up prices, so more supply could help bring costs down, and she’s approached this in a few different ways.
- Experts say one of the biggest barriers to building affordable housing is restrictive zoning laws at the town level. Ayotte signed legislation that changes some zoning restrictions statewide: Now multifamily units like apartments and condos can be built in places that were zoned for only commercial units, like offices.
- She also signed laws that allow more innovative housing to be built around the state, such as accessory dwelling units. These are sometimes called “basement apartments” or “in-law suites.” By signing these bills into law, she’s signaled to municipalities that she values local control, but the housing supply needs to increase and towns have to reduce hurdles for building new housing.
- She also moved to speed up bureaucratic steps in the construction process. The most recent budget, which Ayotte signed, required state departments to process housing permits within 60 days. Navigating local, state and sometimes federal regulations can slow down new home construction. Developers need to get permits from agencies including the Department of Transportation or Department of Environmental Services in addition to town agencies.
Critiques of Ayotte’s housing approach
Some housing leaders say Ayotte is falling short in one specific area: putting state dollars towards affordable housing construction.
Developers make a lot more money building expensive homes because over all high construction costs. If a home sells at a higher price, developers can make more of their money back on the project. To make affordable units more attractive to developers, the state has something called the Affordable Housing Fund. The fund covers some building costs for developers, incentivizing them to develop these units and rent them out for less than market rate.
The Affordable Housing Fund currently gets $5 million a year from tax revenue, but many housing experts say that isn’t enough to make a dent in the supply issue. The previous budget that Ayotte signed didn’t assign any additional money towards the fund.
For context, in the 2023 budget, Gov. Chris Sununu allocated $25 million extra dollars to the fund. That, however, was all federal COVID relief money and didn’t have to come from state tax revenues.
While Ayotte hasn’t said anything about assigning state dollars towards the Affordable Housing Fund in her next budget, her office told NHPR she’ll be assigning roughly $1.7 million in federal money to the Affordable Housing Fund.
Ayotte also didn’t dedicate any state funding to the Housing Champions program in her budget. This is another incentive program, but for towns and cities that are actively looking to address the housing crisis. For instance, if towns were revising their zoning rules to make it easier to build housing, they could get money to pay for other projects.
The fund was created by Sununu, using federal COVID relief cash again, but Ayotte and Republican lawmakers didn’t fund it in the last state budget. However, she told WMUR-TV that she wants to revisit it in the next budget.
Warmington’s housing record
Obviously, we can’t get a look at what Warmington would do during a budget cycle or legislative session based on her record, as we can with Ayotte. However, Warmington previously served on the Executive Council, the part of the state executive branch that approves billions of dollars in funding.
In 2022, Warmington was one of several councilors who voted for federal funding from the American Rescue Plan during the pandemic to go towards affordable housing in the state. Sununu, who was governor at the time, proposed that $100 million go towards rental housing projects, but councilors argued it could end up funding luxury apartments.
One housing advocate told NHPR that Warmington worked behind the scenes to make sure the money went towards affordable units, and councilors from both parties voted in favor of it.
If elected governor, Warmington says she’ll prioritize putting state money towards the Affordable Housing Fund and the Housing Champions program.
Warmington also said she’d push to undo a law signed by Ayotte last year that allows landlords to evict tenants at the end of their lease. Before that, tenants couldn’t be evicted without cause — such as not paying rent — even if their lease had ended.
Warmington says she’s also focusing on private equity firms buying property in the state and then jacking up rents — an issue concerning people around the country. Warmington says she’ll work to ban private equity firms from buying homes in New Hampshire and raising rents too high.
Manufactured home communities are particularly vulnerable to this trend. Residents there pay rent on the land beneath their home, and many say their out of state landlords are dramatically increasing rents. She wants to strengthen manufactured home owners' rights to band together and buy their community land before it’s sold to investors.
