This week, The State We’re In host Melanie Plenda discusses the data available surrounding loan practices, whether or not they are discriminatory, and what that means for residents and communities in New Hampshire. To discuss the details are three journalists who've been working on a series about housing and equity in New Hampshire: Jeff Feingold, editor of the New Hampshire Business Review; Granite State News Collaborative data and research editor Johnny Bassett; and reporter David Solomon.
Through data and zoning maps, reporters and editors working on the project were able to show how exclusionary zoning laws have reinforced areas of persistent poverty, impacting many aspects of community life, including crime, public health, affordable housing, and access to economic opportunity.
The team used Manchester as a case study. However, the same sorts of exclusionary zoning practices present in Manchester are common across the state, and likely have had similarly-broad effects, as later stories in the series will highlight.
