Gregg Hough: 'Affordable housing' is just government overreach into private sector

To The Daily Sun,

What is affordable housing? Wikipedia's definition “…deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government…” In New Hampshire in 2022, the median income was $43,353. One standard for housing is suggested to be 30% of gross income. That puts affordable housing around $1,084 per month or less.

The average cost to build a new home in the state is $384,375. Not including land. Suppose that in Laconia you could find land for $150,000 that would put a new home around $534,375. Paying $1,084 a month it would take 41 years to pay off. This doesn’t include interest. Obviously, anyone who is to provide housing cannot provide affordable housing and pay the mortgage to keep the property. Herein lays the problem.

Those who push for affordable housing either know it is a boondoggle designed to unnecessarily burden already overburdened taxpayers by involving government where the private sector already knows it’s a bad deal, or simple do not understand finances.

I bring this to light because the homeless situation is being used to create more poorly thought out and costly government overreach. Perhaps instead of blaming poor souls down on their luck for whatever the reason, we start looking at the bloated government spending, and regulations that lead to the ever-increasing cost of living.

In the past six years here in Laconia, with all the task forces and advisory committees and studies chewing up tax payer money looking for answers, we have gotten one midnight raid to oust a homeless encampment and now a million-dollar proposed shanty town on city property — which if happens will make our fair city of Laconia a destination place alright, but not for the reasons which the tax payers work.

Gregg Hough

Laconia