New Hampshire Forum Finds Common Ground On Housing. Can Lawmakers Follow?

By Leonard Robinson, NH Journal

If you put 50 Granite Staters in a room together for three days, can they find common ground on New Hampshire’s housing crisis?

According to the New Hampshire Forum, a statewide, nonpartisan initiative launched by actor, activist, and civic entrepreneur Andrew Shue, the answer is yes.

Six housing policy recommendations emerged from the group’s Civic Assembly, held Sept. 25-27 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord, each supported by at least 70% of delegates.

The next challenge: turning that agreement into legislation.

Shue told NHJournal that the decision to begin with housing policy came from the same grassroots process as the forum itself.

“This is the culmination of a nine-month process that started with a very broad open call to people to talk about what they think is broken in New Hampshire that needed fixing,” Shue said. “There were about 18 different topics that were the original batch, and that got winnowed down to four, and then finally the selection of housing as the number one issue that they felt needed to be addressed.”

Delegates were selected through a lottery designed to reflect New Hampshire’s geographic, political, and demographic diversity.

The recommendations were:

• Expand water, sewer, and public transportation infrastructure to increase the supply of affordable housing: 84% support.
• Increase manufactured and prefabricated homes to expand affordable housing options: 82% support.
• Increase housing supply and help keep existing housing sustainable and affordable so residents can remain in New Hampshire: 79% support.
• Expand affordable housing options and access: 73% support.
• Increase access to housing that meets residents’ needs and financial resources: 70% support.
• Improve education access and accountability related to housing stability: 70% support.

The assembly was part of a four-step process that began in April with a survey asking Granite Staters, “What should state leaders and residents work together to fix in our state?”

The second phase, which began in June, involved small-group “Community Conversations” held in person and online. Those discussions culminated in a detailed report, with housing emerging as the issue the Forum would tackle.

The weekend gathering marked the third phase, bringing delegates together to hear from policymakers and experts and develop recommendations.

Experts who addressed the gathering included Josh Greenwald, president of the New Hampshire Association of Realtors; Brodie Deshaies, legislative advocate at the New Hampshire Municipal Association; and Rob Dapice, executive director and CEO of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority.

Current and former state lawmakers also attended. Following the Forum’s “Noah’s Ark” approach of pairing leaders from both parties, the opening session on Sept. 25 featured state Sens. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, and Tara Reardon, D-Concord.

The Forum’s bipartisan legislative advisory team will now work to turn the recommendations into proposed legislation for the 2027 session. The organization said it would publish more detailed policy actions supporting the six goals after the assembly.

Lang and Reardon said they hoped to bring the resulting legislation to the state Senate with bipartisan support.

“Perhaps the biggest kept secret of the legislature is that 80% of the work that we do is bipartisan,” Lang said. “The biggest issue is the 10% of the crazy left and 10% of the crazy right. The 10% of the crazy left wants to bring an income tax to New Hampshire, and the 10% of the crazy right wants to secede from the union.”

Reardon said senators arrive aiming to serve their communities, much like the group’s participants.

“We all come to the Senate with our own values and ideas,” Reardon said. “When I say ideas, I’m not necessarily talking about policy. We’re talking about what’s important to us, like our families and the small businesses in our communities.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.