Housing costs are one of the top issues for New Hampshire voters, and the two candidates for governor are offering different paths to the same goal: more homes people can afford.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Jackie Harris laid out the candidates' records and plans Oct. 15, ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. For contractors, the race could affect what gets built, how fast permits move and how much public money flows into affordable projects.
Ayotte: zoning and permits
Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has said the high cost of housing is the state's number one economic issue, and she has focused her first term on increasing construction, NHPR reported.
Ayotte signed legislation that changes some zoning restrictions statewide, so multifamily units like apartments and condos can now be built in places that were zoned only for commercial uses such as offices. She also signed laws allowing more types of housing, such as accessory dwelling units, sometimes called basement apartments or in-law suites.
She also moved to speed up the paperwork. The most recent state budget, which Ayotte signed, requires state departments to process housing permits within 60 days. Developers often need permits from agencies such as the Department of Transportation or the Department of Environmental Services on top of local approvals.
Some housing leaders say Ayotte has fallen short on putting state money toward affordable construction, according to NHPR. High construction costs push developers toward expensive homes, where they can make more of their money back, the station noted. The state's Affordable Housing Fund, which covers some building costs so developers can rent units below market rate, gets $5 million a year from tax revenue, and the last budget Ayotte signed didn't add more. By comparison, Gov. Chris Sununu put an extra $25 million into the fund in the 2023 budget, all of it federal COVID relief money.
Ayotte's office told NHPR she will be assigning roughly $1.7 million in federal money to the Affordable Housing Fund. Her budget also didn't fund the Housing Champions program, which rewards towns that make it easier to build, but she told WMUR-TV she wants to revisit it in the next budget, NHPR reported.
Warmington: state dollars
Democrat Cinde Warmington, a former executive councilor, says she will prioritize putting state money into the Affordable Housing Fund and the Housing Champions program, according to NHPR.
On the Executive Council in 2022, Warmington was one of several councilors who voted to send federal American Rescue Plan money to affordable housing. Sununu had proposed $100 million for rental housing projects, and councilors argued it could end up funding luxury apartments. One housing advocate told NHPR that Warmington worked behind the scenes to make sure the money went to affordable units, and councilors from both parties voted for it.
Warmington also says she would push to undo a law signed by Ayotte that lets landlords evict tenants at the end of their lease, and she would work to ban private equity firms from buying homes in New Hampshire and raising rents too high. She also wants to strengthen manufactured home owners' rights to band together and buy their community land before it's sold to investors.
Why it matters for Contractors
Both candidates say they want more housing built, but they lean on different tools, and each one reaches contractors in a different way.
Ayotte's approach focuses on rules: zoning changes that open commercial land to apartments and condos, easier paths for accessory dwelling units and a 60-day clock on state housing permits. For builders, faster state reviews from agencies like Transportation and Environmental Services can shorten the time between design and groundbreaking, and commercial-zoned land opens more sites for multifamily work.
Warmington's approach focuses on money. Putting state tax dollars into the Affordable Housing Fund and the Housing Champions program would mean more subsidized projects in the pipeline, the kind of jobs that often carry public-funding paperwork along with them.
Contractors don't have to pick a side to plan ahead. Whoever wins Nov. 3 will shape the next state budget, which will decide how much money goes into the Affordable Housing Fund and whether Housing Champions is funded. Builders who follow that budget debate will have an early read on what kinds of projects are likely to come next.