28 communities applied for Housing Champion designation program

CONCORD — The New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs reports receiving 28 applications following the Nov. 15 deadline for the state’s new Housing Champion designation program, a spokesperson for BEA confirmed. 

Those applications are under still review and BEA will name the designees in December.

The Housing Champion designation was created to offer heightened access to grant funding for municipalities who implement progressive zoning ordinances in an attempt to incentivize the development of affordable and workforce housing in the state. Gov. Chris Sununu provided $5 million in funding for the program as part of last year’s state budget.

Cities and towns interested in gaining access to that pool of funding must first apply to receive the designation. In order to become eligible for receipt of the designation, municipalities must earn a total of 80 points across a variety of categories, including their zoning ordinance. The menu is a la carte, with municipalities able to pick and choose which regulations of theirs already meet the standards for the program and which others, if any, they’d need to amend. In some cases, such as in Laconia, municipalities may already be close to meeting those standards plus or minus a few definitions in the zoning ordinance.

In Laconia, city councilors declined to support city staff in applying for the designation in time to meet the Nov. 15 deadline for the first round of funding. There will be another opportunity in the spring, but councilors declined to reconsider their initial decision at their meeting on Nov. 12, leaving the future of the program in Laconia uncertain.

Applying for the designation had the support of half of the city council plus a number of city leaders including in planning and zoning and new Economic and Housing Development Director Joia Hughes. She said gaining access to funding for development of infrastructure could prove an efficient solution to what’s been considered a significant barrier to development in recent years. 

The Housing Champion program is administered by the BEA and is part of the broader InvestNH program, created in 2022 through the state’s $100 million allocation of American Rescue Act Plan funding. A notable feature of the program is the award of $10,000 per affordable unit developed in a champion municipality. 

The State of New Hampshire is experiencing an affordability crisis, and a severe lack of housing may play a significant role in exacerbating overall economic constriction. According to a study on housing across the state, New Hampshire is short 20,000 units to meet current demand. That figure is projected to increase to 60,000 by 2030, and 90,000 by 2040.

In Belknap County, more than 80% of vacant units were available only seasonally, and state officials say there’s less than 1% vacancy rate statewide. Of vacant units in Belknap, almost 12,000 were seasonal rentals, while just 286 were available to rent long-term. 

But the state says the InvestNH program, writ-large, has proven a success. In an email Tuesday morning, BEA Communication Director Lorna Colquhoun pointed to a total of 4,657 units which were, in one way or another, affected by the program.

The Housing Opportunity Planning Grant program, which provided funding to municipalities to develop planning and zoning strategies to facilitate appropriate housing, would have assisted the city in working toward the development of its master plan. It could have provided funding for housing and density studies, among other items, but the prospect of applying to the program was quashed when councilors voted not to support the city’s application just before the deadline. Councilors reconsidered the program at a subsequent meeting, and opted to support the city’s application, but that occurred too late. 

A total of 67 communities across the state received $7.9 million in funding toward those ends. 

“The goal with these one-time funds has been to help accelerate affordable housing units getting to market and setting the stage for more private investment in affordable housing statewide by providing incentives and resources to local communities,” BEA Commissioner Taylor Caswell wrote in a press release.