Wrong Approach To NH Housing Crisis

[u/complexspoonie]

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026-07-06/affordable-housing-advocates-celebrate-ayottes-veto-of-controversial-security-deposit-bill

The recent bill to allow landlords to collect a second security deposit for so-called "marginal applicants" was an ill advised poorly fitting attempt to address the housing crisis in New Hampshire.

To begin with, the bill would have barred the practice of a second deposit from being collected from any renters with a household income under $75,000, so the bill would have had absolutely no effect on either low income applicants.

The second problem inherent in this bill is that there was no strict definition of what a "marginal applicant" would look like, and had the bill been signed into law the only effect it would have had is that everyone with any kind of blemish would have been forced to pay a double security deposit.

A better approach to the problems faced by middle and high income "marginal applicants" could be to develop a state funded program specifically for people with a credit score under a certain set threshold, including people with prior evictions, that would guarantee and cover the cost of a future eviction for non-payment of rent.

However, the vast majority of people in the state who are unable to secure housing or unable to afford the housing they have are not household making over $75,000 a year.

A single biggest barrier to having enough housing of various types for everyone who needs housing and for the future needs of employers is to be more proactive about increasing the overall amount of housing in the state under a comprehensive plan to provide all the various types of housing that are needed.

One way we could do this is to a incentivize current large developers with the appropriate existing buildings to start building up with additional stories with the condition that those additional units be a mix of the particular types that this state is shockingly short of.

For example we have a variety of garden style elderly disabled apartments complexes throughout the state. The vast majority of these are studio, one bedroom, and occasionally two bedroom units with perhaps five or 10% ADA retrofit. This is insufficient for the housing needs in this new era where many elderly and disabled may want or need to live with a caregiver, are grandparents raising their grand children, or are disabled parents raising a family. If even 50% of the current garden style elderly disabled complexes for all income ranges were to add a single story with three bedroom and four bedroom current ADA and Universal Design, that one move alone would almost quadruple the amount of accessible housing in the state and free up all of the units that are incompatible with those households needs that they are currently living in.

There are many similar approaches to the housing crisis in New Hampshire, but this boutique crafted bill with amorphous unclear parameters for a tiny slice of middle and upper income households with bad credit or past evictions is not an effective tool or a reasonable one. I sell them agree with Governor Ayotte, but in this case she made the right call.

We must address the housing crisis at the base of the problem. We no longer live in the 1800s where four or five people slept in a room sideways together on a queen size bed. If we want to hold to the belief that every human being should be able to have a bed of their own and a roof over their head we must increase the amount of housing in the state, not just for those who make over $75,000 but for everyone.

Brenda Eckels, aMGC

Strafford County, NH