12/5/25: Housing Matters Newsletter

Welcome to the Housing Matters Newsletter!

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Wednesday to recognize pro-homes leaders. While there is still so much work to be done, it’s important that we celebrate our successes and the folks who help make it happen.

Congratulations again to all of our award winners!

Advocate of the Year: Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire

Ben Frost Award for Excellent Leadership on Housing Policy: Elissa Margolin

Legislator of the Year Award: Senator Keith Murphy

Legislator of the Year Award: Representative David Paige

Media Award: NH Has Issues Podcast hosted by Liz Canada

Media Award: NH Uncharted Podcast hosted by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute

Special thank you to our Presenting Sponsor Evernorth, Housing Champion Sponsor Lighthouse Credit Union, and Yes In My Backyard Sponsors AARP New Hampshire, Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, New Hampshire Association of Realtors, and Service Credit Union.

If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive future updates, you can sign up here.

Best,

Nick Taylor

Executive Director

Housing Action NH

nick@housingactionnh.org

Latest Continuum of Care NOFO Updates

As we’ve written about in this space, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released an updated Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, which includes significant policy changes and a rapidly approaching funding deadline. The CoC program serves as the foundation for homeless services nationwide. In New Hampshire, we have three CoCs (Manchester, Nashua, and Balance of State). The most significant change in this NOFO is that no more than 30 percent of funding can be used for permanent supportive housing.

Permanent supportive housing is critical to reducing homelessness because it provides long-term stability and support services for vulnerable populations who often otherwise would be in emergency shelters or outside.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness conducted a state-level analysis of potential impacts and found that this NOFO may cause 406 people in New Hampshire to lose housing due to the loss of $6,473,969 in funding for programs that provide permanent housing. Currently, 63% of permanent housing beds in New Hampshire are funded by the CoC Program, including 65% of Permanent Supportive Housing and 53% of Rapid Re-Housing. The analysis is an estimate of potential impact. The actual impact will be determined by a number of factors, including whether projects are converted to transitional housing.

As the CoCs do everything they can to prepare for the updated application, advocates are working on multiple strategies to delay or change the NOFO implementation. There are two ongoing lawsuits: the first, filed by a coalition of 20 states, and the second, filed by a broad coalition of nonprofit organizations, including the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Additional advocacy efforts are focused on getting a one-year extension of the existing CoC contracts included in the supplemental THUD appropriations bill, which may advance through the House and Senate.

Locally, the Union Leader reported that Governor Ayotte has reached out to HUD to express her concern about the impact of these changes. WMUR and the Boston Globe both covered the potential state and regional impacts of these changes.

We included these resources from the National Alliance to End Homelessness in last week’s newsletter, and are including them again here for reference.

• Act Now Federal Outreach: We are in touch with New Hampshire’s federal delegation and they are concerned about the impacts of these changes. The act now link provides talking points, follow-up information, and a link to reach out to our delegation to let them know you are concerned, too.
• How Delays Will Impact Local and State Governments: This blog post from the National Alliance to End Homelessness outlines the potential impact on state and local governments. The post was written before the new NOFO was released; however, the challenges of reworking a system and temporarily cutting off funding still remain.
• CoC Advocacy Guide: This is a comprehensive advocacy guide for FY25 that outlines key benefits and strategies for talking about the Continuum of Care system.
• Side-by-Side Comparison: This is a side-by-side comparison of the recent NOFO changes.

2025 State of Homelessness in New Hampshire Report

This week, the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness released its 2025 State of Homelessness in New Hampshire Report. The report looks at New Hampshire’s homelessness data from the 2024 Point-in-Time Count (PIT) as well as the 2024 calendar year data from New Hampshire’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) – the most up-to-date data sources at the time of the report’s publication.

It’s encouraging that New Hampshire saw decreases in homelessness in most data points compared to 2023; however, the rates of homelessness remain significantly higher than they were five years ago.

We’ll dig deeper into the data at our January House Matters Zoom meeting – so stay tuned!

State House Updates

The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) continues to release 2026 bills on a rolling basis after the prime sponsor formally approves them. Prior to OLS releasing the final bill language, we only have a public list of Legislative Service Request (LSRs) titles. That list is available on the NH General Court website. As the language is released, the LSRs will be assigned a bill number, and the legislative language will be linked under that number.

We continue to review the proposed language and will provide a more comprehensive look in the coming weeks.

Resource For Planning Board Members

The next PLAN webinar from the New Hampshire Office of Planning and Development will provide an overview of New Hampshire’s zoning amendment process, including key dates for posting notices and conducting public hearings.  The webinar will also discuss best practices and tips for board members and planning staff on how to operate as a board when hearing an application. Topics will include applicable RSAs, organization and rules of procedure, determining application completeness, findings of fact, and the notice of decision.

Here is the link to register.

Upcoming Events

Friday, December 12: The Initiative for Housing Policy and Practice invites you to the 2025 Housing We Need Forum.

This year’s theme, “Supply Unlocked: Levers for Housing Growth,” explores the most effective strategies driving housing development today. The featured speaker, Mike Kingsella, is the CEO of Up for Growth, a national coalition advancing pro-housing policy solutions.

Location: NH Institute of Politics, Saint Anselm College

Date: Friday, December 12, 2025

Time: 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Register Here