A new report commissioned by Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig is urging city leaders to use municipally-owned property to help address the city’s affordable housing problems.
The recommendation is one of 14 in the report that, its authors say, will help the city generate more housing a broader swath of residents can afford as rents statewide continue to rise amid a lack of production.
The city’s rising rents have attracted multifamily investors in recent years.
“We began our work with the belief that housing is a fundamental human right,” Craig said in a statement. “I’m thankful to the members of the Affordable Housing Taskforce for their commitment to identifying solutions and outlining a path forward to respond to the challenges associated with affordable housing in Manchester.”
Task force members included representatives from city departments, the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission, the St. Anselm Center for Business and Ethics and affordable housing developers.
The report urges the city set to conduct an audit of city-owned parking lots, vacant city-owned land and tax-seized properties and prioritize appropriate parcels for the development of affordable housing. Other suggested changes include revamping city zoning to reflect its current master plan, implementing ideas like density bonuses tied to the addition of affordable units to a project and allowing developers to build multifamily buildings in commercial districts. The report also calls for the city to streamline the permitting process for housing by liberalizing the city accessory dwelling unit ordinance and increasing the number of units in developments that don’t have to be reviewed by the city Planning Board to six, reducing the cost to build so-called “missing middle” homes.
The report’s authors also say city officials can’t tackle the crisis without help from state and federal officials. The report urges Manchester’s leaders to lobby state officials to allow “tiny homes” under the state building code, to permit local authorities to waive certain state fire code regulations that conflict with local ones and to push for the creation of more federal affordable housing assistance for developers.
“The development community can play an important role in trying to resolve the affordable housing issue. The Taskforce was an excellent opportunity to meet with other dedicated community members and hear their concerns. We are grateful to Mayor Craig for taking on this task and allowing us to be involved,” task force member and surveyor Joe Wichert said in a statement.