Innovative Solutions for the Crisis in New Hampshire
New Hampshire is suffering a critical shortage of housing that is causing hardship and pain for individuals, families, communities, and businesses across the State. The shortage of housing has caused prices for home ownership and rentals to become unaffordable for people from all walks of life, including young couples seeking to plant roots in NH, seniors hoping to age in place, and employees planning to take jobs with NH businesses. The shortage has become so severe that our communities are facing dramatic increases in homelessness, housing instability, and overcrowding.
The Center’s Housing We Need initiative works with partners across the State to facilitate research, education, dialogue, and collaboration:
Research
The Center conducts statewide polls and housing surveys, publishes research on the affordable housing crisis, and holds workshops on housing and zoning topics. Click on the links below for some recent housing-related research and please contact us for copies of the listed PDFs.
Annual Statewide Housing Survey:
2022 Statewide Poll (PDF)
2021 Statewide Poll (PDF)
2020 Statewide Poll (PDF)
2020 Issue Brief (PDF)
Housing Survey Experiment (PDF)
Videos
Building the Cities of the Future
Residential Land-Use Regulation in New Hampshire: Causes and Consequences
Education
The Center engages experts and community leaders in order to bring awareness to the affordable housing crisis--its causes, effects, and possible solutions. Sign up for our newsletter to hear about upcoming housing-related speaker events, moderated panel discussions, webinars, and seminars.
Dialogue & Collaboration
We work with community members, land-use boards, builders, building and fire code officials, local employers, housing advocacy groups, lenders, realtors, and policy-makers. Contact us for help in convening a dialogue for your community.
Previous Housing We need Roundtable forums yielded priority recommendations for the State and its community members (please contact us for copies of the listed PDFs):
2018 Housing We Need Stakeholder Forum Executive Summary (PDF)
Priority Recommendations (PDF)
2019 Housing We Need Stakeholder Forum Priority Recommendations (PDF)
2020 Housing We Need Stakeholder Webinar
Developers Speak Out: Insights and Recommendations from the June 2021 CES Developer Luncheon (PDF)
Code Enforcement Officials Event, September 2021 (PDF)
2021 Housing We Need Stakeholder Webinar (with Sara Bronin)
2021 Stakeholder Forum Survey Results (PDF)
Housing Stories
The Center for Ethics has been talking to people around New Hampshire about their experiences with housing, in order to gain a clearer understanding of how the housing shortage affects people in our communities. You can read some of their stories here.
See all of the housing stories
News & Events
Sara Bronin, cofounder of Desegregate Connecticut, spoke to our annual Housing We Need Stakeholder Forum in December 2021. Her remarks can be seen below.
Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig released a report of the Mayor's Affordable Housing Task Force in April 2021. Contact us for a copy of the report.
New Hampshire PBS recently interviewed the Center for Ethics' Director, Jason Sorens, on the Housing We Need initiative for their program, "The State We're In." Watch the program here.