New Hampshire Housing Market Faces Increase in Rates; How Will This Impact NH Residents

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

Affordable housing is an issue across the region, but the pinch is especially felt here in New Hampshire. Vacancy rates for rental units are 8.6%. The median rent for a two bedroom unit is $1,764, an 11.4% increase in just a year. On this episode of The State We’re In, New Hampshire Housing’s Executive Director and CEO Rob Dapice, and Senior Director of Research, Engagement, and Policy, Heather McCann talk about what's going on in the housing market and how it affects residents.

Melanie Plenda:

Rob, can you give us some background about New Hampshire Housing and the survey's origins?

Rob Dapice:

Sure. Thank you, Melanie. New Hampshire Housing is a public corporation and what that means is that we were established by state law and we have a board of directors appointed by the governor and executive council. But we're not part of the government. We don't receive operating funds from the state. But we administer a range of programs that help promote and finance housing for the people of New Hampshire, and that includes financing multifamily, affordable rental housing. It includes helping our lender partners to offer mortgages that help people achieve homeownership. And we administer the housing choice voucher or section eight program for areas of the state that are served by a local housing authority. We also do a fair amount of research work and conduct research engagement and policy work to help inform stakeholders around the state in their housing conversations. And that's where the rent survey comes from.

Melanie Plenda:

Rob, can you give us a broad overview of the findings? 

Rob Dapice:

Sure, you touched on a few of them in the opening, but rents are up again, you mentioned the gross monthly median rent for two bedroom apartments of almost $1,800, statewide, a vacancy rate that's abnormally low at 0.6% statewide, and an annual increase in monthly gross rent of 11.4%, across the state, And the survey breaks that down by region, but to talk a little bit about what that represents in terms of a trend. That's the fifth year that we've seen increases in the monthly rent and the vacancy remains at an extraordinarily low level, we've been doing the survey using similar methods going back for 40 years, and this is the lowest we've seen the vacancy is where it's been in the last couple of years.

Melanie Plenda:

And Rob, what do these findings mean not only for renters in New Hampshire, but for people who want to buy a home in New Hampshire?

Rob Dapice:

They have very few choices. And so again, people are often looking for a home when they experience life events, maybe they want to form a new household, they're getting married, or moving in with a partner. Certainly, it can be as a result of divorce, or somebody's moving into the workforce, graduating from college, whatever the reason may be, there are fewer and fewer choices and that restricts people's ability to live the way they want to live. It restricts labor, mobility and affects the economy in that way, and certainly affects people who are most vulnerable. Whether it's individuals with disabilities, coming out of incarceration or lower, simply lower on the income spectrum, they're more more vulnerable and more likely to become homeless or lose their housing stability and wind up in an overcrowded or unstable situation.

Melanie Plenda:

And Heather, what did you think of the findings? Did anything about it surprise you at all?

Heather McCann:

Well, given the overall housing landscape in New Hampshire, as Rob has described, I was confident that we would see an increase in rents. The question was just how much they would increase. The high cost of purchasing homes and the very limited supply of homes for sale in New Hampshire especially for first time homebuyers or someone looking to make the transition from renting to ownership puts more pressure on the rental market. So I wasn't surprised to see the vacancy rate remain under 1%. Every year, though, I've come to expect it. So it's not much of a surprise. But a really big concern is the affordability issue. The stark contrast between rental costs and the median renter household income is a troubling reality that puts tremendous financial strain on many individuals and families throughout the state.

Melanie Plenda:

What would cause such a huge spike? And are the reasons that you're seeing the spike in Grafton County? Similar to reasons for increases across the state?

Rob Dapice:

Yes, I think similar dynamics exist in Grafton County as as to others. I mean, Grafton County has a very sort of micro urban area in Lebanon, Hanover, Enfield, where there's a lot of economic activity, a lot of demand, and not a lot of other metro areas from which people might plausibly commute. And so I think that creates sort of a perfect storm at times. But certainly we see significant rent increases like that often when a building changes ownership. Sometimes there are reasons that a new owner has to put a lot of money into a new property. But whatever the reason, it's very hard for households to manage that kind of increase.

Melanie Plenda:

And how their rental costs have been rising and vacancy rates have been falling for some time yet, it seems like the pandemic has exacerbated these trends. I mean, is that accurate? And if so, why is that?

Heather McCann:

Yeah, so I would say this is true, the pandemic prompted a shift in living preferences as remote work opportunities provided people with greater flexibility, many people reevaluated their space requirements in New Hampshire as a desirable place to live. So while we already had a challenging market, both on the rental and purchase side prior to the pandemic and increase in demand, coupled with limited supply, drives prices higher and adds competition to the market. We also saw, particularly in last year's survey, more rental properties that were sold than we've ever seen in previous years. And that could be a result of the pandemic, or an increase in property values people saw an opportunity to sell. And so this change in ownership, as Rob previously mentioned, often leads to adjustments in rental rates, causing rents to rise in certain cases.

Melanie Plenda:

And Rob, what does the survey tell us about the overall housing market and where it's headed?

Rob Dapice:

Historically, as I mentioned, this is extraordinarily a time of extraordinarily tight housing market conditions. It's just not normal to have so few houses on the market and so few rental apartments. I think it is important to get this data at the state level, because there has been some news coverage of housing market conditions loosening in certain areas of the state in some areas of the country. There are some news stories that talk about the southwest, where population has exploded, there's been a lot of new multifamily construction. And as a result of that explosion in new construction, rents have at least moderated somewhat, the report tells us that we simply haven't seen that yet. And there's really no nowhere relief coming just yet in terms of New Hampshire and housing market conditions.

Melanie Plenda:

Many economists link the housing shortage to the tight job market. After all, it's easier to find people to work somewhere if they have a place to live. So affordable housing can be linked to the overall economy of a community or the state. Yet, as you mentioned, building more housing in a community can be difficult, especially if people are concerned about too much development in town. So Rob and Heather, can you speak to that? What could you say to people who don't want development in their community or backyard? Let's start with Heather and then to Rob?

Heather McCann:

Yeah, so the availability of affordable housing plays a significant role in attracting and retaining a skilled workforce. So when people have access to suitable housing, they're more likely to consider opportunities in a given area, boosting the overall economy of the state. Community engagement, I feel, is really critical, talking through concerns educating community members and, and what offering diverse housing options means within each community, I often find people have an easier time connecting these dots, when it affects them personally. So for example, their children are looking to buy or rent a place close by, but there's nothing available or affordable to them, or the household is looking to downsize and they want to stay within their community, but there isn't anything available. So when you make these connections for people, it can help foster productive conversations around these issues.

Melanie Plenda:

And just a follow up on that I know that even in covering local communities for years the idea of affordable housing will always sometimes get the pushback from community members that this will lower my property values or this will somehow impact us adversely. So when can you talk about some of those specifics? Like what are the benefits of having a more diverse, a more diverse housing market in a community.

Heather McCann:

So it helps everybody in the community overall. So you get people that are going through kind of life stages. If you think about where you've lived in your lifetime, it's not always that single family home, it's an apartment, and as you go through your life, you have different needs. And hopefully, you can afford to make changes to your housing situation, based on those needs and how they evolve and change over time. I think people have a stigma of affordable housing or workforce housing. But they often neglect to realize that affordable housing, workforce housing can be naturally occurring, so it's homes that maybe are smaller, that are more affordable to people with a lower income. It's not necessarily a building that's just dedicated to people of a certain income level. And so it's a lot broader than people may assume. And it impacts everybody in their community in one way or another.

Melanie Plenda:

And Rob, what do you think?

Rob Dapice:

So, first I would say absolutely. The tight housing market affects the economy and labor supply. And that's why you see the Business and Industry Association, a statewide Chamber of Commerce, has for years identified housing as one of its top issues. And you hear from large employers like Dartmouth Health and Fidelity that tell stories about numerous employees accepting jobs, and then rescinding their acceptance because they can't find a place to live that they can afford. In terms of what I would say to people who are concerned about development in their town, I would say first, I understand and change can be frightening and unsettling. But Heather talked about education. And I think one of the wonderful things that we've seen is in a lot of towns in New Hampshire, the places that people love most about their town, the downtown's that were built in the 19th century, are now made illegal by local zoning. And in a lot of cases, if you wanted to build a similar community, now, you couldn't do it because of the regulations that have been imposed in the past few decades. So just being aware of that, and being aware that a lot of the most wonderful places in our communities are, are really not able to be replicated or improved, because our local zoning is important. And the other thing I would say is all changes are unsettling, it's scary, it's important to understand the changes happening, and particularly for those folks who are in suburbs that might be considered wealthy or desirable, those places are getting a lot more expensive to live. And the path that we're on in a lot of communities is for less expensive houses to become more expensive houses. And that affects the community when people who have lived there for a long time, can't stay in the community that they know and love and in many cases work in. And so understanding how providing the opportunity for other reasonable housing options and more affordable housing alternatives, can sort of preserve a lot of what's special about the communities important too.

Melanie Plenda:

And one more follow up question. You had mentioned what the state could do more to address local regulations. Can you talk a little bit more about that? What could the state do?

Rob Dapice:

So, as I said, I think the state has a role in working with municipalities to ensure that their regulations are not so burdensome, that private property owners are sort of unable to meet the demand for housing. So this already exists in law, just the state has a workforce housing law, which says that cities and towns have to create or allow for reasonable opportunities for different kinds of housing to exist. But I think that that law could perhaps be a little bit more specific, or maybe there's opportunities to identify the distinctions between reasonable regulations that serve to protect a community's character and environmental quality and restrictions that go too far.

Melanie Plenda:

Oh, that's really interesting. New Hampshire Housing Executive Director and CEO Rob Dapice, and Senior Director of Research, Engagement, and Policy, Heather McCann. Thank you so much for joining us today. 

The State We’re in a weekly digital public affairs show is produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members.

The State Of Journalism: What Can Reporters Do to Regain Trust in the Public?

By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew

Around the country, local news is struggling. Shrinking newsrooms due to financial pressure, burned out reporters, publicness trust journalism is being hit harder than it ever has before. While New Hampshire is not immune from the crisis, here in the Granite State news organizations are doing everything in their power to innovate and engage to keep local journalism alive and sustainable. Annmarie Timmins senior reporter for New Hampshire Bulletin, Carol Robidoux founder and publisher of Manchester Inkling and founding member of the Granite State News Collaborative, and Julie Hirshan Hart reporter and editor for The Laconia Daily Sun are here to discuss the state of journalism in New Hampshire, what's happening in the news industry and how it impacts communities within the Granite State. 

Melanie Plenda:

Annmarie, can you tell us about some of the bigger issues facing local news and how you've seen their impact in the Granite State?

Annmarie Timmins:

I guess I’ll start by saying I think we're really lucky here. We have a very strong news presence. There's so many different kinds, and a lot of it's free to read, thanks in large part to the collaborative and other nonprofits. But that's not to say that there aren't challenges right now. I was at the Concord monitor for about 20 ish years. And when I was there, we had 15 reporters on staff. And we always felt like, why are they starving us of resources? I think they're down to five reporters now and still manage to get the paper out. So I think what I'm seeing generally as newsrooms are shrinking, but the demands for news every day remain. So I just think reporters are working on more stories with less time that results in a very different kind of story than big takeaway, investigative pieces. So I think the resources in New Hampshire are very, very strapped here. And I just don't know how a lot of my colleagues get news out every day. So I think that's a big picture. We're luckier than most and that we have so much free local news here. But it's hard to get it out. And I wonder how long some of us can continue to do that.

Melanie Plenda:

And, Julie, let's pick up on that with you. How do these issues kind of play out in the community? What impacts do they have on the everyday lives of community members?

Julie Hirshan Hart:

Well, as Anne Marie mentioned, now, we're all trying to do more with less so as our newsrooms are shrinking and as we have less resources, we still have the same number of stories that we have to cover, we still have the same number of towns that we have to deliver news on in our coverage area. So our community, with the advent of the internet and social media, is used to being able to access the information that they want immediately. And we have to do our best to keep pace with that, while also prioritizing the most important stories and trying to balance delivering all of that information to our readers with less resources.

Melanie Plenda:

I know all three of you have really, really built community engagement into what you do, prioritizing, knowing your sources and building relationships with them, and knowing your community members. So, you know, let's talk about that a little bit. So Annmarie, as a reporter, talk to us about how you broke this barrier of distrust and formed those relationships with your sources and why that's important.

Annmarie Timmins:

I will say it's getting much harder to do during my time at the monitor, in part because the monitor was a trusted new source. There wasn't this competition of people masquerading as new sources that Carol described. And because I've been around a long time, I have a long source list from people I met many, many years ago and it was just much easier because there wasn't as much distrust, there was people who felt like the monitor had a bent, but in the end, they could separate the newsroom from the editorial page. 

What I'm seeing now is a sort of trickle down of what we saw during the Trump administration, the press being enemy number one, that still is coming up for me. And so when I call people who presume I am a progressive, Uber liberal socialists like filling the word, source, they won't talk to me. And they're often rude about it. And so it's hard to find a way to get into a conversation. So for us, the Republican leadership at the Statehouse has been very distrustful of us, they've sort of tend to go toward another outlet that is really opinion, but calls itself news for most of the time. 

And so when we don't have their voices in a story, it's unfortunate for readers, I think, so what I'm trying to do is, take the abuse that I get from some people who view us as not the good journalism outlet, and just keep going back and keep going back and trying to convince them send them my story that I wrote about their subjects and say, please let me know, if you find anything inaccurate here or slanted. It's just a long, long process, I really have not encountered this kind of resistance before. I'm even asked, "Are you on my side?" when I call a news outlet, a source, or try to talk to someone at an event even about why they're there. And it's just, it's more and more hostile. 

And I think the other piece is Carol alluded to this, that news is being delivered in a different way. So if you take Twitter, I feel like it's largely become a platform, at least for my writing for the Libertarian Party, for example, is very much targeting me. For anything I write, it's not clear to me, they've read the story, but they feel like I'm a progressive reporter. And they'll say things like, people should throw tomatoes at me, or I'm a hateful person, or I'm a bad person. And the amount of pylon that I see on Twitter within a day, there'll be 45 people liking that. So that kind of, I think, distrust just piles on and then if I try to talk to anyone in that party, they just know me as this Twitter, you know, personality. And so it's just, it's hard, you have to keep trying to do it. And it's abusive sometimes. But I have my notebook between me and them. And I tried to think this is not about me, this is about them. And it's my duty to keep trying, but it's become harder.

Melanie Plenda:

Well, first, no one should have to put up with that level of abuse from anybody in any field. And I'm sorry that you have to go through that. And all journalists are going through that right now. But one follow up question, when someone does ask you, “Are you on my side?”, how do you respond? I'm curious, because what would you say in that situation? 

Annmarie Timmins:

One quick example, I was at an event where the Proud Boys were there protesting it. And I just went up, I said, “What are your concerns? What brings you out today?”. I was easily attacked like, “that's a biased question”. And so, how is that bias? I don't know. But I tried to explain that this is what we do. This is how journalism works, that I'm talking to these people. But I also feel like it's really important. I hear from them. It's kind of journalism, one on one, I increasingly have to have that conversation. I'm not sure it's persuasive. But that's usually my response to say no. And even like, could we just have a conversation first, set the interview aside, and you can ask me sort of how I'm approaching the story. And we'll just have a casual conversation, and then please, then maybe decide if you want to talk to me. So it's a lot more explaining what we do, which I don't think is a bad thing to help people understand what journalists do. But more and more I'm happy to say, this is how I approach it. This is journalism. Why do you think that's a biased question? So just trying to be open to a conversation has helped a little bit.

Melanie Plenda:

And, Julie, how do you implement that kind of community gauge engagement into your newsroom? I know you've done quite a few initiatives in that regard.

Julie Hirshan Hart:

So we try to prioritize transparency in everything that we do, to try to invite the community in and see behind the scenes see how we're doing our work, who it is in our newsroom that's doing that work so that they can connect with us when they see us out in the community, and recognize us as trusted reporters who work for a legitimate newsroom. We've started hosting events, which help many community members, whether their sources or readers, get to know us as journalists, and also help them understand the work that we do.

Melanie Plenda:

And I think to me engagement comes from the need for diversity, diverse audiences, diverse sources and diverse newsrooms, staff, all of you. Why is diversity in news so crucial? And how do you implement diverse perspectives both in and out of your newsrooms?

Julie Hirshan Hart:

Diversity can look a lot different. One thing we're focusing on in our newsroom is, instead of just relying on those official sources that we've had in our contact lists for years, is looking for younger voices or looking for new voices that have a different perspective on an issue than we might be used to. And also just being present in the community going to those community events, whether we're more reporting on them or not, but that develops sources, like we mentioned earlier, makes people recognize you and be willing to come up to you and share story ideas, meeting as many people as possible. We try to do editorial boards as often as we can and invite people into the office just to talk about what's on their mind and that helps us not only learn about new sources, but new story ideas. And social media has become a huge part of our work that connects us with different sources that we might not meet, through our day to day work out in the community or at our desks. And it really allows us to include the voices of sources we might not otherwise be able to.

From left to right; Annmarie Timmins, Carol Robidoux, and Julie Hirshan

Melanie Plenda:

Annmarie Timmins, senior reporter for the New Hampshire Bulletin, Julie Hirshan, editor for the Laconia Daily Sun, and Carol Robidoux, founder and publisher of Manchester Inkling and founding member of the Granite State News Collaborative. Thank you all so much for joining us today and what you do every day.

The State We’re in a weekly digital public affairs show is produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members.

Legislative Session Recap: Housing, School Funding, Gambling, and Marijuana Legalization in Focus,

 By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew,

 NH PBS and Granite State News Collaborative

Housing, school funding, gambling, and marijuana legalization. All these and more were tackled by the legislature this session. This week, Anna Brown, Research and Analysis Director for Citizens Count and host of the podcast $100 Plus Mileage, talks about what was and wasn't accomplished this legislative session . 

Melanie Plenda:

Let's start with the unusual makeup of the house this session. How did having such a close split between Democrats and Republicans impact the legislature?

Anna Brown:

Well, originally, I suspected there would be a lot of partisan rancor. Maybe those hardcore on the right or hardcore on the left would be able to really drive a wedge on some issues. But I was wrong. Most of the hot button highly partisan bills were in fact set aside in favor of focusing on legislation that was more likely to get bipartisan support, or was a top priority for legislative leaders. So for example, the House Education Committee had many bills related to the so called Education Freedom Account Program, which allows students to take a per pupil share of state education funding and spending it on private or homeschool expenses. There were many bills related to that people on the left wanted to limit the program or increase oversight. People on the right wanted to expand eligibility or the mountains of money that were going into the program. The education committee actually recommended tabling the vast majority of those bills, which is a way to set aside a bill without having debate without having a full vote. And just basically moving on to other issues. There was also a really bipartisan lead from the majority and minority leaders, Jason Osborne and Matt Wilhelm. They started the session with a co-sponsor bill for marijuana legalization. And I think that, them working together really set the tone, “What about the amount of legislation that was affected by the makeup? How productive were they?”. There was slightly less legislation than I expected this year starting in the session. And I think that legislators edited themselves a little bit because they knew those very partisan fringe issues. We're not going to move forward. So it seems that there was like I said, a little bit of self editing going into the legislative session. Wow. That's interesting. So as you mentioned, the two party leaders Jason Osborne and Matt Wilhelm, work together 

Melanie Plenda:

What about the amount of legislation was that affected by the makeup? How productive were they?

Anna Brown:

There was slightly less legislation than I expected this year starting in the session. And I think that legislators edited themselves a little bit because they knew those very partisan fringe issues. We're not going to move forward. So it seems that there was like I said, a little bit of self editing going into the legislative session.

Melanie Plenda:

Let's talk about the budget bill that was passed this session. Budget bills seem so innocuous, but they never are. So especially here in New Hampshire. Can you tell us about some of the highlights in that bill? And what does it mean for people?

Anna Brown:

Sure, this was an incredibly historic budget, because it was very popular among both Democrats and Republicans. It actually passed on a voice vote at one point, which basically means it was so popular that legislators could pass it just by saying yay, in a chorus, which was notably louder than the nays, so they didn't even need to count the votes. Overall, lots of wins. Here, there's a new school funding formula that increases state support for schools. There's more money for housing development, a pay raise for state employees, seven year authorization for expanded Medicaid, a repeal of the interest in dividends tax, and more. Those are just the big highlights. And then there are some smaller policy changes that didn't get as much news coverage, but are also really interesting. There's a new requirement for law enforcement to post notice on their websites before setting up an immigration checkpoint. This is particularly relevant near the northern border with Canada. There are also new limits on the governor's power to declare an emergency. That's a response to the ongoing emergency related to COVID-19, which went on for several months in I believe, even years, there's also $1 million to develop a civics tech textbook for New Hampshire students in grades K through 12. And lastly, the budget looks and lastly, the budget lifts some campaign donation limits as well.

Melanie Plenda:

What about housing, an issue plaguing New Hampshire and the rest of the country with the high cost of housing and the low stack available, what initiatives that the legislature put forward?

Anna Brown:

First of all, the state budget does include 25 million for the Affordable Housing Fund, and then an additional 10 million for the InVEST New Hampshire Housing Development Fund, which has fewer restrictions related to affordability. So the idea is you can just increase housing stock across the board. The most interesting provision to me, though, is what's called a housing Champion Program. This was very popular in the Senate, less so in the house. The idea is that if cities and towns adopt certain land use regulations, water infrastructure, public transportation, and so on, that helps the development of workforce housing, those towns and cities could get preferential access to state funds. So the idea is this is basically a carrot for the state to say, Hey, how about you work on that infrastructure and zoning to welcome more housing critics in the house, we're concerned that this was a way for the state to play favorites among cities and towns. But ultimately, the program was included in the budget because we all acknowledge housing is a crisis right now in New Hampshire.

Melanie Plenda:

One of the more controversial proposals in the legislature this session was the parental bill of rights that didn't get through to the governor's desk. What did those proposals entail and what happened?

Anna Brown:

There were two big parent rights bills, we had HB 10, which was the House version, and SB 272, which was the Senate version. HB 10 is interesting, because it actually made no mention of gender as introduced. It laid out many existing parental license rights and state law and then added some more enforcement, some oomph to those existing laws. SB 272, on the other hand, specifically would have required teachers to disclose information about a student's gender identity or sexuality if a parent asked, and opponents were concerned, this would threaten the privacy rights of students, especially if they had a hostile parent. 

And that's one reason why SB 272 also had an exception if school personnel had quote, unquote, clear and convincing evidence that a student might be abused or neglected by a parent. Ultimately, both of these bills were defeated in the house, however, with the very slim majority, arguing that we need to protect the safety of students and their privacy. And this bill is inviting attacks on teachers and schools. Those were the general arguments, just a couple of Republicans broke with their party to vote against the bills, and the Democrats mustered enough attendance so that neither bill ultimately passed. It's interesting Governor Sununu did not really weigh in on either bill. He's open to them as a concept. But I think that if we're going to see these bills, or some version of these bills reappear next year, for example, in the state senate, then I would think they probably need the support of Governor Sununu to really get across the finish line.

Melanie Plenda:

And there were also bills addressing gender equality. This session, though nothing was passed. So what were some of the proposals discussed and how might they come up again,

Anna Brown:

There were actually several bills that were retained in committee in the House, which means that these committees can work on the bills over the summer, and then they'll issue a recommendation in the fall. So then there will be a vote often right away when legislators come back in January. So four of those bills for example, HB 264, would allow a sex chain on a birth certificate without a court order. hB 368 would add protections for gender affirming health care, HB 396 would protect differentiation between male and female sex and HB 619 would ban gender transition, care for minors and ban gender identity conversations in school. So as I said, the retaining committee, these bills aren't dead. They are absolutely coming back next year. So I think the parent Bill of Rights was just the very tip of this conversation, and there's going to be a lot more next year.

Melanie Plenda:

So the perennial favorite marijuana legalization came close this session, though all the states around New Hampshire are legalizing cannabis. It's not legal here. Despite the fact as you mentioned, it had support of both party leaders. What does that mean for the next session? Do you think

Anna Brown:

There was a real game changer near the end of the session, when Governor Sununu announced ‘surprise surprise’ he would support marijuana legalization if it was a state run model similar to how we do our liquor stores. So there's a study committee of that issue over the summer. There's also a bill that's in a House committee that would set up state run marijuana stores basically. So this issue is absolutely going to move forward. And the house we know is on board. The House has voted for all sorts of versions of marijuana legalization state run private with taxation legalization without any sales. So now the question is really whether the Senate will get on board and I do think they will have a lot of pressure now that Sununu has finally said with the right bill, this is the way we can do it.

Melanie Plenda:

Let's look ahead to the next session. What are your predictions? What do you think will come up again, there?

Anna Brown:

I'm definitely looking at the housing and childcare issues, because there were those special committees that were set up. We've also touched on some obvious ones like marijuana legalization, gender issues. But one thing that didn't get as much attention this year as I thought it might was energy related bills. Yes, there were some bills that went forward related to bio power related to residential solar panels related to what appears on your electricity bill. But I'm very interested in what the state is going to do related to the renewable portfolio standard, for example, which is set to expire in 2025. Or is there going to be something related to Reggie, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, something else with offshore wind? Let's not forget a year ago, we were all hit with a huge increase in our electricity bills. And it looks like those bills are going to be coming down for most of us in August. Now that there's new rates coming in, but like I said, this was an issue that I expected more on. So I think that they'll dig in next year.

The State We’re in a weekly digital public affairs show is produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members.

Juicy Garland; Protests and Intimidation: Drag Story Hour Targeted by NSC 131, Community Responds with Resilience and Solidarity

By Rosemary Ford, and Caitlin Agnew

NH PBS, Granite State News Collaborative

Click here to watch the full conversation on The State We’re In

On The State We’re In, Juicy Garland who performed at the Teetotaller Sunday Drag Story Hour as well as capturing clips of the group protesting before and during her story hour talks about what happened.

Melanie Plenda:

Thank you so much for being here. So Juicy. Can you tell us about your background? How did you get into drag performance? And how did you come to do the story hour on Sunday? 

Juicy Garland:

Yeah, so I had always been interested in drag. I was always a fan of Drag Race. But I actually held off from doing drag for a long time. Part of that was limited resources. Part of that was limited time. But I had friends who started doing drag and who encouraged me to do it around 2018, 2019. So I really took a deep dive in 2019. And then, over the pandemic, I really took a deep dive, started sewing and started working on my makeup and started performing as soon as the pandemic started to ease up. And then, as I was performing, I started doing brunch at Teetotaller. And they invited me to start doing story hours because they felt like my drag was family friendly. And they had been looking for someone who could be family friendly, and who could tailor what they were doing to a different kind of audience than an adult audience. So I was eager to do it. Because I love working with kids, I used to work with kids with disabilities, I used to want to teach and I went into the industry instead. And because of that, I was thrilled to be able to do it and started doing that in November of last year.

Melanie Plenda:

Excellent. And let me ask a little bit about it sounds like you sort of got into drag in 2018. Over that time, what did you learn about drag? I mean, it really is an art form. And I think sometimes that gets lost in these conversations. So maybe we can talk about that a little bit like what is it as a form of expression or as an art form? What is it for you? 

Juicy Garland:

Yeah, so I've always struggled with my self image and my self expression. And I saw it as an outlet for me to really find an alternative way to be myself. But also, I don't know, I'm the kind of person who likes to find boundaries and find out where the edge is, and then push that boundary every single time. And I don't know, my favorite drag queens in history are people like Devine, who really do extreme things with their art and just go well beyond that boundary of acceptability. But also, I don't know, I also love camp. And I love Queens like Ben dilla crem, a famous Drag Race Queen, who really do goofy smart things, aesthetically. And that's something that I've always really just wanted to be able to do. In addition, I don't know, I see gender as a big old joke. We all put ourselves into neat and like convenient boxes. So we're comfortable with the roles that are assigned to us. And I think that often, these labels that we apply to ourselves are really for the convenience of other people. So they're comfortable knowing where we stand. And there's something I think useful and important and interesting, about challenging what those neat little boxes, say about us and say about other people. And drag is a way to challenge those ideas and find new ways of reshaping them. 

Melanie Plenda:

So that kind of brings us to Sunday, so what happened during the story hour on Sunday. And when did you become aware of the protests? 

Juicy Garland:

Yeah, so I show up early. When I get ready for this particular event, I put my face on. And then I drive up to Concord because I don't live in Concord. And it's tough to drive an hour and so I drive up in my face, I take my suitcase with my drag queen in a box. And I then go into the cafe and I get into the rest of my costume. Then I go downstairs and most of the space is set up there's a microphone with an amp. And then there are the chairs arranged, the cafe has excellent management so I don't have to worry about a thing. 

And then I go sit down, I arranged my books at that morning, there was this amazing small family there was this mother with her adult kids, they had just moved to New Hampshire I believe last week, the two kids were adults, the younger had just matriculated into Dartmouth College in to study I believe genetics and biology. The older had just finished school in genetics, and was actually going to work doing genetics research at Dartmouth College. And they were there, moved in from the Bay Area to just be at Dartmouth, and they wanted to see a drag queen. So they came to my show as we were talking because I come from a background in the sciences in my day job. 

These organized men in khaki cargo pants, the goal of them to wear cargo pants, and their uniform T shirts with their little Neo Nazi symbols and their masks and their hats started to make noise and bang on windows and start shouting obscenities and slurs. So immediately this family of three left the space smartly. I am glad they did. And I decided to immediately document what these goons were doing. So I took a brief video, which is what I ended up posting online. And then I stopped that video and immediately sprung into action to touch base with Liam, the manager of the cafe, which we immediately discussed, how do we keep these kids safe when they arrive because none of the other families had arrived yet. And then we assessed we could keep them safe. We made a plan on how we would modify the event. We executed that modification, I remained downstairs to maintain the attention of the fascists outside as they were seen heiling and shouting obscenities. And then after we had arranged the event, we had confirmed with the families who had arrived that they did want to continue with the event. I moved to the alternative space within the cafe. And we hosted the event. 

And despite the noise that these fascists made, after the police arrived, they were moved away from the windows to make sure that they didn't cause any damage to the cafe. They were moved to the front sidewalk where the street is. So that way while they could execute their First Amendment rights, as stupid as they are for these people, they have that right. They were disruptive, but we were able to keep these kids effectively oblivious of the problem. Although they were aware of the noise. We kept these kids safe, the most important part because the event is of course about them. And I was able to not only entertain these kids and read stories about family to them, because it was Father's Day, and that was the theme we had chosen. But I was also able to make sure that the parents were comfortable, and that the parents felt safe as well. And we read through every single story I brought. And I was able to have a great time with these families, and they left happy and thankful. 

Melanie Plenda:

So what was going through your mind? I mean, I know I hear you kind of went into action mode where you were taking care of these different steps. But what was going through your mind either as it was happening, or even once the dust settled? Like, what were you thinking about?

Juicy Garland:

Honestly, for me, and maybe this is a uniquely weird thing for me. And this might come from my background. For me, when I'm faced with a crisis, I immediately go into problem solving mode. And this is something I saw in Liam, the manager of the cafe, he did exactly the same thing. We met with each other, we both had the same, like look on our face, which was, let's solve this problem and figure it out. We did that. And then I think the biggest struggle for me was maintaining the compartmentalization to execute on that. There was a moment I distinctly remember, I don't remember which story it was. But I was like turning a page. And the fascists outside were loud. So I could hear individual words, they were chanting, they were chanting things, like, get off our streets get off our streets, they were clearly organized. These were different people than who had protested before. Before the protesters were effectively lazy is the best word, we had to describe them previously. 

Liam and I had ultimately joked about it. We had been less worried about our safety and organizing anything to like, prevent them from arriving because they had stopped arriving. These were different people. But then also, they chanted, F, slur, F, slur, F slur, that was, in the back of my mind, like part of my mind, recognize that consciously. At the same time I'm reading, like, the first book I read was like, Heather Has Two Mommies, which I did as a joke to myself, I do that a lot, where I'd have a joke that only I know. And no one else gets it. And I'm thinking it's funny. So that's fine. But I'm like turning a page in one of these books. And I'm making a funny voice and entertaining the kids. And I'm like, saying something to make sure that the parents are laughing along with their kids, and that everyone feels good and happy and is having fun. And in the back of my mind is just that word being chanted at me. And like maintaining the compartmentalization to be able to execute on making sure people are safe and feeling safe, was tough. 

But I had a very busy day. So not only did I have the event that I had to execute on successfully, which we did, and then immediately everyone left, one family stayed for a little while, and I chatted with them. And it was wonderful. I love these people, the community of Concord is amazing. I immediately got out of drag, I packed everything away, I got a bite to eat. I planned the next event with Liam like, he and I are both like the same people. We both immediately had the conversation. Not do we do this, again, that never once was discussed. It was when do we do this again. And then immediately after I got in my car, I drove right home as fast as I could to my partner in Massachusetts. I finally sat on my couch in the dark, and was able to have the space to just sort of emotionally react to the whole day. And at that point, I was allowed to feel rage. 

And I just did that for an hour just being angry at the goal that these idiot fascist goons had to think that they could stop me from just letting some kids have fun and hear stories about different kinds of families. Like they even had the power to achieve that end. And they did not. And I won. Yeah. Well, and you talk about doing this again. But I mean, you know, are you talking about keeping the family safe, keeping the kids safe? Or were you afraid for your safety and even going forward? I mean, of course, like that has to be a consideration Right? Like, I'm not dumb. Like I'm a smart person. I know that my safety is at risk. These are violent dangerous people who were dumb enough to put that at risk, clearly. But at the same time, we live in a dangerous time where there's never been more important for me to be an advocate for my own and other people's rights when other people are in a similar position to me. 

And I am already putting myself out there as a loudmouth stubborn person in a wig. Just sticking out like a sore thumb being queer and brightly colored. And I'm not about to stop that. Because even if I tried, I couldn't, I tried that when I was 13, struggling with the fact that I was gay, and it didn't work then. And it's not going to work now, no matter how hard I try. And, ultimately, I feel like it's an obligation for all of us to recognize that Fascism is a problem. And it's not going to go away if we stop pretending to be gay. And passive activism isn't enough. Like we have to put ourselves out there and show them that we're not going to stop being queer because they want us to. And obviously, if the families of Concord don't want to show up, I can't make them. But I'm going to continue putting myself out there to welcome them if they want to keep coming back.

Melanie Plenda:

What, if anything, would you say to this NSC 131 Group and the other groups that are like them,

Juicy Garland:

Ultimately, their views, their fascism has no business in Concord or anywhere else in this country. We fought a war about 80 years ago over this. And I think we settled that pretty harshly with them, then. And I don't think that has changed. There is no space for that kind of bigotry, or that kind of violence anywhere in our culture. And there is no room for tolerance of that kind of viewpoint. We cannot allow that kind of fascism to inhabit any kind of space in our country. It does not belong here. My grandmother lost brothers to that fight. And how many of our grandparents lost family because of that fight? We're not about to tolerate that kind of violence and nonsense now, when we still have family missing because of it. 

Melanie Plenda:

So what generally should people know about attending story hour and what would you like to say to parents and kids who might be thinking of coming?

Juicy Garland:

So, ultimately, I do not broadcast when it's happening again, publicly, online. And that's ultimately because it's meant for the local community and I don't want to publicize it, to keep it as safe as possible, right? So if you are local, go to Teetotaler and make sure that if you are interested in going seek that information out from the cafe itself. I let them manage that information directly. And I have every ounce of trust in Teetotaller to do what they can to keep this event as safe as possible, ultimately use your own discretion. But I have no doubt that there will be additional support and resources from the local peacekeepers, and I'm assuming the local police as well after the last event. There will be plenty more advanced support in order to make sure that this group and others can't disrupt the next event like they did this one. And I am eager to see the next one, simply because I know it will be far more safe and secure than the last one because we will be far more prepared. 

The State We’re in a weekly digital public affairs show is produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communications. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members.