Kathy Thesing said she sees an obvious dilemma every day.

The people who work in Hopkinton – the landscapers, school teachers, daycare providers and police officers – who keep the town running are forced to commute half an hour or more because they can’t afford to live in the very community they serve.

The average cost of a house in Hopkinton is well over $500,000.

“Those are the folks that you want to be part of our community,” said Thesing, a Hopkinton resident for more than 25 years, at a town housing committee meeting this week. “I think there’s plenty of room to bring other folks into our community that want to  be here, and we can figure it out.”

Nearly 90% of all homes in Hopkinton are single-family houses, according to an audit conducted through a Housing Opportunity Grant through the state Department of Business and Economic Affairs.

About 350 units make up all other types of housing in town.

The town only has about 150 rental units available.

Will Downie, a senior member of Barrett Planning Group, a company the town hired with grant funds to identify regulatory barriers that limit housing choices, said the findings were intended to be a “value-neutral document.”

But he made it clear that Hopkinton lacks a variety of housing types needed to serve all levels of affordability.

“Hopkinton does make it difficult to build multifamily housing,” said Downie. “It's a combination of restrictive zoning, saying where you can build it and how you can build it. People who work in Hopkinton often cannot afford housing in town.”

More than 70 towns across the state, including Warner, Epsom, and Canterbury, have received grants through former Governor Chris Sununu’s InvestNH initiative. The goal was to help communities identify possible changes to land use regulations and take a closer look at what is driving the shortage of affordable housing.

Through these sessions, the town sought input from residents before placing any zoning changes on the ballot for next year.

In Hopkinton, single-family homes are typically built on two- to three-acre lots, which creates affordability challenges, said Downie.

“There are often large houses on large lots, leaving seniors overhoused and high priced,” said Downie. “High housing prices prevent seniors from downsizing and can force young households out of town to find somewhere else.” 

At the meeting, which drew at least 50 residents, reactions were mixed as some supported adding more affordable housing to the town, while others expressed concern that it could alter Hopkinton’s rural character.

Chris Haridopolos recounted his time in his twenties, when renting small studio or one-bedroom apartments was the only option because buying a home in a “farm town” like Hopkinton, where average home prices were well into the hundreds of thousands, just wasn’t in the cards. 

So when Haridopolos attended the housing committee meeting, he said it did not add up for him. 

“Coming out of college, you have to build yourself and then want to live in a town like Hopkinton. It took me decades,” said Haridopolos. “Having all these studies and reports about entry-level people being able to move in here and trying to make those things happen, it seems absurd.”

The potential impact of increased housing on the town’s aging sewer system was also a concern.

Between 2010 and 2020, Hopkinton’s population grew by an estimated 10% according to the audit report, but new housing lagged far behind, increasing by only 2% to 4%. 

Over the entire decade, the town added just 130 units, and none of them were considered workforce housing.

Vicky Bram said it’s clear Hopkinton’s demographics are shifting, with more older residents in the community and younger people priced out.

“I think what a lot of us see as homeostasis,” said Bram. “We need to keep up with the change. It's about keeping the workforce that's here or bringing people back that could not afford to stay here.”

 

Sruthi Gopalakrishnan can be reached at sgopalakrishnan@cmonitor.com