Fiscal Committee approves $100 million housing grant program; plan moves to Executive Council – New Hampshire Bulletin

The New Hampshire Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee authorised a $100 million, federally funded housing funding plan Friday, a vital step for a proposal touted by Gov. Chris Sununu as a way to extend rental capability and workforce housing.

Voting 8-2, the committee signed off on a program to dedicate $60 million to matching grants for housing developments within the state and $40 million to grants to incentivize cities to hurry up allowing processes and overhaul zoning legal guidelines. The initiative nonetheless requires approval from the state’s Government Council, which meets April 20.

The brand new program would permit builders or housing organizations to use for as much as $3 million in matched funding for initiatives, offered these initiatives can be used for rental housing and embody at the very least 5 items. 

If this system is authorised subsequent week, the appliance interval will start in June, mentioned Division of Enterprise and Financial Affairs Commissioner Taylor Caswell, whose division designed this system and can be tasked with distributing the cash. Builders could have till June 2023 to use.  

In the meantime, cities will probably be eligible for $10,000 per unit of recent housing they approve inside six months, and could have entry to funding to assist demolish dilapidated properties or to rent consultants to assist overhaul their zoning ordinances.

Addressing the committee Friday, Caswell mentioned he anticipated lots of the early grants to go towards developments pushed by housing nonprofits.

“I’m anticipating that the primary a number of rounds of this program can be held completely for our nonprofit builders who’re growing completely these sorts of reasonably priced items,” he mentioned. “And for smaller developments.” 

However some Democrats have continued to specific concern that the initiative doesn’t embody earnings necessities, and urged Caswell to prioritize reasonably priced housing initiatives when approving purposes.

Throughout Friday’s Fiscal Committee assembly, Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, a Nashua Democrat, requested Caswell why the division had opted to categorize the funds as “income alternative,” a designation that exempts the state from sure earnings limits. Approving the funds beneath the usual course of would have required that the state goal them to households making 300 % of the federal poverty stage or beneath.

“There’s no requirement for affordability requirements,” Rosenwald mentioned. “So I’m questioning why we selected to not construct reasonably priced housing with these public funds?” 

Caswell mentioned the state had used the income alternative method so as to maximize flexibility for the initiatives and keep away from limitations. However he mentioned he anticipated lots of the housing developments that apply for the funding to have already got earnings targets as a result of they’re receiving exterior grants that require that.

Nonetheless, he mentioned, the division anticipated a mixture. 

“They are going to be initiatives which have a zoning requirement that is perhaps compelled by locality, like an inclusionary zoning requirement,” he mentioned. “They is perhaps initiatives which have blended earnings inside them, so there’s a part that has an affordability piece to it, however then there’s a market charge part to that. And so they is perhaps in a rural city the place you’ve gotten an previous Victorian home that any individual’s changing into 5, six, seven items.”

Caswell mentioned the division would publish lists of which initiatives get authorised and the way a lot every receives. And he mentioned steering for the way developments may apply can be revealed forward of June. 

Rep. Susan Almy, a Lebanon Democrat, famous points Lebanon has had with constructing reasonably priced housing; housing developments which have been authorised just lately have tended to profit residents making above the median earnings, she mentioned, and never those that want it most. Nonetheless, Almy mentioned she would assist the funding as a result of excessive want within the Higher Valley.

Senate President Chuck Morse, a Salem Republican and a candidate for U.S. Senate, mentioned he supported the intention to make this system as versatile as attainable. 

First introduced throughout Sununu’s State of the State tackle in February, the $100 million plan has acquired various reactions from advocacy teams. ABLE NH, a incapacity rights group, has opposed the construction of this system, contending that it ought to be focused to low-income residents and embody ensures for unbiased dwelling initiatives, noting that individuals with disabilities have been burdened by the pandemic.

However one main reasonably priced housing group, Housing Motion New Hampshire, is supportive of the transfer. 

“There are definitely plenty of initiatives from the nonprofit developer group which are targeted on delivering reasonably priced items to New Hampshire’s workforce, which are within the pipeline and truthfully have competed for very restricted sources,” mentioned Elissa Margolin, the group’s director. “And so now we’ve a possibility to maneuver plenty of these forward after which accomplice with municipalities on the similar time.” 

The subsequent step, Margolin continued, is to prepare purposes in order that the reasonably priced housing initiatives are given precedence.