WEST LEBANON — Housing, or the lack thereof, is a top issue for Upper Valley candidates from both parties vying for seats in New Hampshire state government.

While Democrats and Republicans agree there is a housing crisis, their proposed solutions to address it differ in the usual ways. Democrats think state and federal dollars play a major role, while Republicans point to lowering taxes on developers as a solution.

Both parties agree that municipal zoning ordinances must be examined, but are careful to emphasize their support for “local control.”

“The housing crisis is like a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle where there’s no picture on the cover of the box,” said state Rep. Laurel Stavis, D-Lebanon.

The Upper Valley Lake Sunapee region has a target of 5,671 new housing units by 2040 based on population projections, according to the 2023 Regional Housing Needs Assessment. Sparsely populated Orange is projected to need the least units at 26, and Lebanon the most at 1,102 units. These figures include both single family homes and apartments.

“This isn’t just a Lebanon problem to solve,” said state Sen. Sue Prentiss, D-Lebanon, who is running for a third term. “Every community has a role in this.”

Many towns in the Upper Valley do not have public sewer and water infrastructure, which makes building new homes even more costly. Instead, Prentiss suggested that smaller towns could pitch in by offsetting the costs of permits in other communities and investing in public transit.

Renovating single-family dwellings into duplexes or adding accessory dwelling units is one method to skirt around installing new septic and water systems and add more homes without taking up much more space.

Two Republicans running to represent Upper Valley communities in the House, Wayne Hemingway, of Claremont, and Michael Aron, of Acworth, expressed their support for recent changes in their communities’ zoning ordinances that make constructing new lower cost housing easier.

Claremont amended their zoning ordinances this month to allow for new duplexes to be built with conditional use permits in certain residential zones. Previously, homes could be converted to duplexes but new duplexes could not be built. In Acworth, an amendment passed in March allows for the construction of yurts and tiny homes as permanent, primary residences, a lower cost solution to typical homes.

Candidates are steadfast in their support for local control over these ordinance changes. “Each town has an idea for how they want their town developed and the state should not mandate how towns govern themselves,” said Hemingway. “What’s good for Manchester may not be good for Claremont and Croydon.”

Instead of forcing communities to change and build, Democrats are big on opt-in legislation and incentives. This can look like policies that when adopted by towns, make the process of changing zoning ordinances simpler, or offer low-interest loans to developers and tax incentives to developers of affordable housing.

Stavis, who is running uncontested for her seat in Lebanon, has proposed two bills for the upcoming session to address housing. One to expand funding to the Affordable Housing Fund — created by the Legislature in 1988 and administered by New Hampshire Housing to facilitate the creation of affordable housing — and another to help municipalities and developers build workforce housing by establishing a low-interest loan and grant program.

Hemingway is not convinced that tax incentives work because he says lower and middle income residents end up experiencing higher taxes to make up the difference.

Affordability

In addition to a dearth of homes, the cost of available housing is also a problem. Of all of the two-bedroom rental units in the state, only 13% are affordable for the median renter household income, according to New Hampshire Housing’s 2024 Residential Rental Cost Survey Report.

The median price of a single-family home in the state was $520,000 in September, a 6.5% increase from the prior year, and the seventh month in a row that the price was over half a million dollars, according to the New Hampshire Association of Realtors’ September market report.

The median household income in New Hampshire is “just 61 percent of what is necessary to qualify for the median-priced home under prevailing interest rates,” the report said.

Lowering property taxes would bring down the cost of housing, Republican House candidates Aron, of Acworth, and Robert Merrill Jr., of Claremont, both said.

Meanwhile, turning unused municipal land and buildings into housing is a potential solution proposed by Lebanon Democrats Karen Liot Hill, who is running for Executive Council, Prentiss and Stavis. Construction on cluster homes for public employees on a state-owned parcel on Barrows St. near Interstate 89 in Lebanon is on track to start in the spring.

Liot Hill said if elected to the Executive Council, she hopes to “not leave any money on the table,” when it comes to federal funding for affordable housing.

“This is a big problem and we’re going to need all of the resources we can possibly get,” she said.

Obstacles

One major roadblock in building new housing, is current residents’ fears of compromising the character of their communities.

“Smaller towns and cities enjoy rural living. We like not being on top of each other,” said Hemingway. “When we allow apartment buildings in rural residential areas it does take away a little bit of the community’s aesthetics.”

New housing can be done in an aesthetically pleasing way such as renovating large houses into apartment style dwellings, according to state Rep. Hope Damon, D-Croydon, who is up for re-election: “We’re not talking about high rises, we’re talking about lovely porches. We can maintain a New England look and feel and have affordable workforce living.”

Damon sits on the New Hampshire House Special Committee on Housing, a bi-partisan, temporary committee created in 2023. The committee has worked on several bills including one which increased the number of dwelling units a building can have before requiring automatic sprinklers from two units to four, making it easier and less costly to convert houses into apartments.

Some residents are not only worried about what affordable housing will look like, but who will live in it.

“We can’t take care of our own people,” said Merrill, a Claremont Republican. “Democrats need to stop immigrants from coming to New Hampshire.”

Merrill, who moved to Claremont about eight years ago from Boston, said the housing crisis is a “migrant issue.”

Candidates from both parties pointed out the relationship between staffing shortages and the housing crisis.

“We are looking for housing for nurses, plumbers, mechanics, teachers, all the people who are valuable to our day-to-day life and well-being,” said Damon.

“Without the available housing you’re not going to get the workforce to come to your town,” said Hemingway.

Democrats Prentiss, Damon and state Rep. Brian Sullivan, of Grantham, all agreed that a public education campaign on why additional affordable housing is good for communities is necessary to combat opposition from neighbors.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@ vnews.com or 603-727-3242.