When it comes to increasing the amount of affordable housing, can the state of New Hampshire take a lesson from the state of Montana?

The NH Housing Finance Authority thinks so.

The agency invited a Montana state senator, who’s been instrumental in housing-related legislation, to its annual conference held Oct. 23 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord.

Forrest Mandeville, a Republican state senator from Columbus, Montana, was one of several presenters at the conference that addressed challenges and possible solutions to the housing crisis in the Granite State.

Mandeville reviewed legislation brokered in a bi-partisan fashion in 2023 designed to increase Montana’s housing supply.

Montana, like New Hampshire, is a mostly rural state that has experienced a housing dearth that makes homes expensive to buy and apartments expensive to rent. Montana, in fact, has it worse than New Hampshire in that it is the least affordable state in the country, according to National Association of Realtors tracking.

Montana, like New Hampshire, passed legislation easing the creation of ADUs — accessory dwelling units on residential property. Montana’s legislation also eased restrictions on duplexes.

The Montana Legislation in 2023 passed the Land Use Planning Act (LUPA), which requires that cities in Montana with populations over 5,000 people that are located in counties with populations over 70,000 people update their land-use plans and zoning and subdivision regulations within three years of its passage. LUPA’s ultimate goal is to ensure sufficient housing for the growing population and for different income levels through coordinated and planned growth across the state.

Politically, both the Montana House and Senate are controlled by Republicans, similar to New Hampshire.

Mandeville, who titled his presentation “Montana Miracle,” pointed to a governor who wanted to see more housing and a coalition of stakeholders — including politicians, builders and planners — who wanted to give him something he could sign into law.

“We streamlined a lot of processes,” said Mandeville. “We legalized a lot of stuff that’s not always been legal. Some of the main things we did that are often lumped into the ‘Montana Miracle’ is we legalized ADUs in single-family zones, legalized duplexes in single-family zones. We allow residential development in commercial areas, and we passed the Land Use Planning Act.”

Creators of the legislation did not pursue items they knew the governor wasn’t going to approve of, according to Mandeville.

“We focused really on the supply side and on the ability to address the demand, the ability of developers to meet the market demands, because that’s what was going to fly in Montana,” said Mandeville. “I’ve had some people tell me: You know, the Land Use Planning Act should have included a climate action plan. That was not going to pass. We were not going to vote for that because the governor was not going to sign. So as much as some people might want to see it, it’s not going to happen. So understand the political factors and take what you can get. You can always work on fixes later.”

Mandeville had four pieces of advice for housing stakeholders to navigate the political divide: take what you can get, know when you lost on an issue and move on, know when to compromise, and build a coalition.

Besides Mandeville, other presenters at the 2024 Housing & Economy Conference included:

• Linlin Liang, principal associate at Pew Charitable Trusts, who spoke about policy approaches to improve housing supply and affordability.
• Tina Lund from Urbanonics, who presented data that debunks the notion that more families with school-age children in a community means higher property taxes.
• Angela Brooks, president of the American Planning Association, whose topic was “Overcoming Housing Obstacles.”
• Lisa Prevost, freelance journalist and author, who spoke on how zoning in New Hampshire throws up roadblocks to affordable housing.

Rob Dapice, executive director and CEO of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, opens the 2024 Housing & Economic Conference held Oct. 23 at the Grappone Center in Concord. (Photo by Paul Briand)

NH Housing’s executive director and CEO, Rob Dapice, set the stage for the day by illustrating the need for purchased and rented housing in the Granite State. About 300 people registered for the event.

Dapice said the 2024 legislative session in New Hampshire produced a lot of activity with respect to housing but with few results, which he called “disappointing.”

“The market can’t do it all itself,” said Dapice, “and so we desperately need more money for the affordable housing fund so we can build more housing for Granite Staters. In addition, there are a number of great ideas and opportunities to lower regulatory barriers to housing.”

He noted that the state needs almost 60,000 new units between 2020 and 2030, nearly 90,000 new units between 2020 and 2040. To meet production needs, he said, local authorities need to increase permits by 36% over recent levels.

During her presentation, Liang tied lack of rental property to increasing rents to increasing homelessness here.

She noted that the median monthly rent in New Hampshire increased 57% from January 2017 to September 2024. At the same time, homelessness in the state grew by 68%.

Using the example of Minneapolis, she said the city made a concerted effort to increase its rental housing supply. Rents decreased and homelessness decreased by 13%, according to Liang.

Lund said Urbanomics, a consulting group that serves businesses and government in the areas of economics, public finance and urban planning, studied the perceptions and numbers of whether more school-age children in a community drives up property taxes.

“The perception is development, particularly multifamily housing, leads to additional public school children, which leads to higher property taxes on single-family homes,” said Lund. “Now our hypothesis, based on all the work we’ve done elsewhere in the country, is that developmental multifamily does indeed yield some additional public school children, but it also yields significant additional property taxes, so there is no additional implicit property taxes to existing residents.”

This notion supports prior data offered by the New Hampshire Association of Realtors (NHAR) that also addressed the issue as being false.