Housing authorities across New Hampshire are facing financial uncertainty as the state and federal governments are considering funding cuts.
For the Laconia Housing Authority, that means having to roll back on certain programs meant to reduce evictions and homelessness.
A state budget proposal has eliminated funding for the Congregate Housing Support Program, a pilot program that helps elderly people and people with disabilities stay in their homes. Laconia Housing says it could affect nearly 30 individuals in the city and leave them without services.
Federal plans to slash the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], which provides funding for local housing voucher programs, means Laconia could have to reduce the number of vouchers it provides.
Cathy Bowler, the executive director of Laconia Housing Authority, spoke with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa.
Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Transcript
Let's dive into housing vouchers. It's a federal program administered locally by organizations like yours. There's been a lot of uncertainty of late over federal funding for the program nationwide. What's the current state of the housing voucher program in Laconia?
Nationally, [thanks to] the federal budget that was just passed, we have funding through Sept. 3 for that program. We don't know where it's going after that. They're going to have to revote on the budget federally at that point. So there is uncertainty, and it's been uncertain for a while.
We went into shortfall for the first time last year in Laconia Housing's history of operating the voucher program. The state of New Hampshire had other housing authorities who also went into shortfall, [and] what shortfall means is you don't have enough federal funds to be able to support the vouchers that you have available to you.
What does it mean for folks who use these vouchers or are maybe on the waitlist for one if Laconia Housing doesn't receive the money it needs to fund the voucher program?
So HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] awards a housing authority so many vouchers. Laconia Housing has 509 vouchers available to them. Currently we're using 444 of them. What that means to you or to the general public is that we are not able to fully fund the program for the number of vouchers we do have available to us.
In 2018, our average subsidy for a unit was $575. Today it's $858, which is why we are using so much of our funding faster. Rents have increased so much in New Hampshire and particularly in our region of Laconia. [Costs are] so much higher for a one bedroom unit. Back in 2018, the rate was $765 and today it's $1,300. So over that short period of time, it has reduced the number of vouchers we can put out on the street because of that.
We have a wait list of 850 people who are looking for housing, and the person who is next on the list has been waiting almost five years at this point for her housing. So it's necessary in the community to be able to have this
Laconia Housing Authority is also facing some possible cuts at the state level, as lawmakers put together a state budget. What programs would be impacted by that?
We have quite a few programs that have been impacted. We have been providing what is called Choices for Independence (CFI) program, which is a medicaid-funded program that the state of New Hampshire offers. We have been doing that for 20-plus years. The three properties that we provide these services are [for our] senior and/or disabled population. They receive nursing, homemaker services and LNA [licensed nursing assistant] services.
We take care of their daily living needs so that they can remain independent in our properties, which are federally-funded subsidized funds, and not end up going into a nursing care environment, which would be far more expensive to the state of New Hampshire. So on average, it's under $19,000 a year for them to participate in the CFI program, compared to $50,000 to $80,000 in a nursing home, depending on where they are placed in the state of New Hampshire.
So with the [CFI] program, we take the person and we put them into a pilot program called the Congregate Support Services Program, which is the grant that we are absolutely losing at this point. Our intent was to be able to provide services to people, to keep them in compliance in their apartments and to be able to keep them housed. So if they had homemaker issues [or] housekeeping issues, we would go in and we would help them to maintain their apartment so when the next inspection came around, that they were in compliance in their unit.
Can you expand a little bit more on how these programs actually currently help save the state money?
What will happen is if people are not allowed to stay or we don't have the resources to be able to keep them in our housing, they could end up in the nursing home, which would cost the state substantially more money. If they are not in compliance and they are not able to maintain their apartment, and we move to eviction, that costs the state a lot of money in court time. If the person ends up getting legal aid, they're going to end up having legal time. It costs us money to be able to hire an attorney to fight that. It's not the best source of our funding. It's better if we can keep people in their apartment and be able to supply services.
If a person loses housing from a housing authority, it's very difficult for them to get housing [from] any other source. If you lose your voucher or you have been evicted from a housing authority, that is really going to put you in a bad situation because another landlord is not going to look at you favorably and be able to provide housing for you. So it is a drain on resources.
So as the [Laconia] Housing Authority faces these potential cuts, what are you hearing from the people that rely on the services you provide?
The tenants themselves have been very concerned. They have been reaching out to us. They're concerned [about] the status of their voucher. Am I still going to have my voucher? How am I going to be taken care of on this program? They're concerned about all of those issues, and I try to reassure them. I have reassured them that for this calendar year, we're going to take care of you. We're going to figure out how to do that. Beyond that, I don't have any answers for them. Beyond that, it is an unsure time for them.
Where is Laconia Housing looking to make up for funding losses at the federal and state level?
When we knew we were going to go into shortfall, we had started talking with Congressman [Chris] Pappas about it. We had sent information to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. We have sent information to the governor, Kelly Ayotte, at this point and provided her information.
We have reached out to [Belknap] County to support us. They're at least listening to us. They are aware of the situation. They're concerned about it as well. So we hope to be able to house and host some of the state representatives to come into Laconia Housing and walk through our program, [and] see what it is we offer in the community.
I wish that the state of New Hampshire, instead of just blatantly cutting the [Congregate Supportive Services] program, I wish that they had come and approached us. If they had said, “Okay, in the budget, if we could give you only $300,000, what would you do with that?” Well, we might not be able to service 30 people, but we might be able to service 25. We would be able to still do something with the money, and we would still be able to secure the people. It's just disheartening that nobody approached us and said, “What are your outcomes? What are you seeing?” We had 17 evictions from 2022 to 2024, so about five to six evictions a year. In this past year, we had one. That's an improvement. That's huge. And it's huge to the people that we take care of that we were able to do that.
All of these will affect the state of New Hampshire and [have] a downstream effect if people don't have housing and if their voucher is all of a sudden at risk. It's going to have a detrimental effect on the community.
