Rental Market

A pair of recent reports on the housing market validate the frustrations felt by many looking for a place to live in New Hampshire.

Low-income tenants no longer have access to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program; that initiative, which used federal COVID relief money to give rental aid to qualifying tenants, ended in October.

The two women are moving on with their lives and into new apartments, after reaching agreements Thursday with their landlord.

Rep. Ellen Read, a Democrat from Newmarket, said the bill was meant to address the “major, major housing crisis” facing the state.

The state had originally approved the money in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, which led a number of displaced Afghans to enter resettlement programs in the U.S.

The state will devote $20 million in federal COVID relief money to help the hundreds of people without housing to stay in hotels through the winter.

So far, state leaders say they aren’t planning on a major replacement effort if federal rental assistance funding dries up.

On Friday, New Hampshire Housing said no new applications would be taken for the program pending a review of whether more federal funding would be available.

Local welfare offices are bracing for what happens when federal housing assistance funds run out.

With two months left to spend the money, officials say the rental relief program – which compensates landlords for back rent to prevent existing tenants from eviction – is a surer bet to get it out the door.