Trump policies could thwart ongoing efforts to address state’s housing crisis
By Michael McCord, Granite State News Collaborative Freelancer
The significant earthquake off the coast of Maine that shook New England on the morning of Jan. 27 was followed later that night by a greater aftershock, one more political than geological: The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget directive to freeze all federal grants, loans and already congressionally appropriated funds.
The list of programs potentially affected is long (at least 2,400 are under review) and includes funding for education, housing, transportation, clean energy development, health care, medical research, veteran health and homeless programs, and police and fire.
And, despite multiple court orders to release the billions of dollars in funds, the administration continues to freeze any Biden administration-era funds that were to be distributed through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — and that has put a halt to thousands of clean energy, transportation and housing projects across the country.
The four members of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation, all Democrats, have called the Trump administration maneuvers “lawless.”
For New Hampshire nonprofit organizations on the front lines of the state’s affordable housing crisis, the directive left confusion, chaos and panic among the thousands of clients who depend on federal funding for rental assistance or homeless programs. Affordable housing projects, either planned or in progress, have been put in bureaucratic purgatory.
‘Nobody anticipated this. No agency was prepared for this,’ says Joshua Meehan, executive director of Keene Housing, about the Trump administration’s directive to freeze billions of dollars in funding. (Courtesy photo)
This is no small matter in a state where homelessness increased more than 50 percent in 2023, according to a report issued in December by the N.H. Coalition to End Homelessness.
A wait list of more than 2,000
“Nobody anticipated this. No agency was prepared for this,” said Joshua Meehan, executive director of Keene Housing about the Trump administration directive. “While we were relieved that the administration intended to exclude rental assistance from the spending freeze, funding that we rely on to provide self-sufficiency services to working families, build new affordable housing and reduce our energy costs were all targeted.”
Meehan’s organization focuses on the lowest end of the housing market, serving about 930 seniors, along with disabled and working families, who would be unlikely to find housing without federal and state assistance.
“We have a wait list of more than 2,000,” he said about the depth of the housing and support services needed in the Monadnock Region alone.
“That memo was a surprise to us, to everybody,” said Rod Dapice, executive director and CEO of New Hampshire Housing, which in 2024 distributed $46 million in rental vouchers through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to New Hampshire on behalf of more than 4,200 residents who aren’t covered by the state’s 17 housing authorities. The organization also acts as an accelerator for securing funds for affordable housing projects across the state.
In the past, New Hampshire Housing has prepared for and worked with landlords in the event of government shutdowns, but the current situation is different, said Dapice. “This looks to be more than a hiccup,” he said.
According to New Hampshire Housing estimates, the state will need more than 60,000 units created by 2030 and 90,000 units by 2040 to meet estimated population growth. While federal funding rarely covers all the costs, using existing tax codes with tax credits and matching grants are vital parts of the equation. Housing advocates say every dollar of funding is needed because many residents are simply being priced out of affordable housing.
“It will really set us back if we don’t build more affordable housing,” said Nick Taylor of Housing Action NH, which works with dozens of housing-focused partners across the state, including for-profit and nonprofit developers and financiers, homeless services providers and public housing authorities.
“It will hurt seniors,” Taylor said. “It will hurt local businesses and the state economy. It will lead to more homelessness because a lot of renters have very little wiggle room in their budgets.”
Uncertainty over the potential loss of federal funding and other supports for affordable housing development troubles Lakes Region Community Developers Executive Director Carmen Lorentz: ‘We don’t know what is going to happen if those funds are frozen.’ (Courtesy photo)
Rental costs in the state have risen an estimated 45 percent since the pandemic, and the market is very tight, with the vacancy rate lingering around 1 percent statewide. According to a recent report by the N.H. Fiscal Policy Institute, by mid-2023, 51 percent of New Hampshire renters were paying more than 50 percent of their income for rent.
‘Inherently risky’
Before the OMB directive, affordable and workforce housing projects throughout the state moved forward through a combination of tax credits and approved federal grants that reimburse agencies for construction costs. Contracts with vendors have been signed, but the situation is no longer predictable and routine.
Among its many endeavors, Laconia-based Lakes Region Community Developers has two affordable housing projects totaling 42 units in Laconia and Wolfeboro (where more than $11 million in funding was secured and approved) that are nearing completion or ready to break ground. Carmen Lorentz, executive director of Lakes Region Community Developers, said the uncertainty is troubling.
“The way the system works is inherently risky,” she said. “We award the contracts for the work and draw down from approved grant accounts for reimbursement. We don’t know what is going to happen if those funds are frozen.”
Like many frontline agencies, Lakes Region Community Developers multitasks private-public development projects while helping clients with potential eviction and rental vouchers. If funds are frozen or rescinded or not budgeted, or if tax credits are changed, the impact on the region’s economic viability will be profound, Lorentz said.
“Everyone knows we have a housing shortage problem. Demand continues to outpace supply,” she said. “In our region, we have a 1 percent vacancy rate, rents and homelessness have gone up, and employers have issues finding and retaining workers, which is a real issue with our tourism-based economy. Everybody also knows it’s not going to get better on its own.”
Betsey Andrews Parker, chief executive officer of Community Action Partnership of Strafford County, said her agency has been doing its best to stay focused since news of the funding freeze broke.
“We were expecting something to happen, like tightened eligibility regulations, but not this, not a freeze,” she said.
Betsey Andrews Parker, the chief executive officer of Community Action Partnership of Strafford County, said her agency has been doing its best to keep focused since hearing news of a federal funding freeze. (Courtesy photo)
Strafford CAP oversees more than a dozen federally contracted programs, from affordable housing development to fuel assistance to domestic violence shelters to Head Start and homelessness services. It even provides diapers to low-income families.
Overall, Andrews Parker said, while the agency receives funding from more than 140 sources, up to 87 percent of the money that it distributes locally comes from federal funding. That amounts to an injection of $12 million annually into the local economy.
Andrews Parker said a $5 million, 34-unit “very, very affordable housing” project is at risk, along with some of the federally contracted programs that could be subject to a funding freeze. She said there is also widespread concern among current clients — many of whom have called and expressed panic about the future — and the situation is taking a heavy toll on her staff of 147 and 200 volunteers who keep the organization going daily. “They are concerned about their futures as well,” she said.
Project 2025 looms
Threats to the future of these agencies might have seemed unlikely before the 2024 election. But if the Trump administration follows through on the recommendations of Project 2025 — a conservative blueprint for radically transforming the federal government and its approach to local communities — big changes may be on the way, especially on the housing front.
In particular, while agencies and many communities in the state are focused on developing more affordable multifamily housing, Project 2025 envisions different priorities. A much less robust Department of Housing and Urban Development could focus on these guidelines:
Eliminate almost all career public servants at the managerial level and replace them with political appointees who will eliminate “Biden Administration ideologies” in policy.
Urge Congress to prioritize single-family home building to create more “generational wealth” while striving for the “American Dream” and respecting traditional marriage and the two-parent family.
“Propose tax credits for the renovation or repair of housing stock in rural areas so that more Americans are able to access the American Dream of homeownership.”
Selling public housing units to private landlords to create more competition and increased tax income for local municipalities.
Adopt more regulations to curtail rental subsidy needs, imposing new time, income and work guidelines that will encourage self-sufficiency and upward mobility.
Eliminate all climate and race-based affirmative action policies, and deny noncitizens access to any public housing programs. If local communities want to help with immigrant housing, it should be their priority and not the federal government’s.
Many agencies will send rental voucher requests at the end of the month to HUD, and they trust the requests will be paid. If not, said Joshua Meehan at Keene Housing, “we start to make tough choices,” in part because many of these nonprofit agencies do not have large cash reserves on hand.
“We would do the same calculations to prepare for a government shutdown,” he said. “We need to honor our local contracts, but we don’t know how long we can front money on the federal government’s behalf, and how much faith do we have that they will pay it back?”
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