Opinion: Ayotte promised to prioritize housing, so why does her budget cut programs that work?

Workers on top of the entrance roof of one of the units at the affordable housing development project on top of a former railroad yard off of Langdon Ave. in 2023.

Workers on top of the entrance roof of one of the units at the affordable housing development project on top of a former railroad yard off of Langdon Ave. in 2023. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor file

By LAUREL STAVIS

Published: 06-25-2025 11:01 AM

Modified: 06-27-2025 4:16 PM


In her inaugural address, Gov. Kelly Ayotte made a bold promise: Housing would be her top priority. She was right to do so.

New Hampshire is facing an unprecedented housing crisis — rents are skyrocketing, workers can’t afford to live where the jobs are and our economy is choking on a critical shortage of affordable homes. But now that her first biennial budget has taken shape, that promise rings hollow.

The Republican budget agreement doesn’t just fail to address the crisis, it actively undercuts the state’s most effective tools for solving it.

From the outset, the governor’s budget included no new investments in the Affordable Housing Fund or InvestNH, two programs that have played a pivotal role in jump-starting housing development across New Hampshire. These aren’t experimental initiatives. They’ve been proven to work, delivering thousands of new units, helping communities plan smart growth and incentivizing private development to meet public need. And yet, the governor’s budget turns off the tap and House and Senate Republicans did nothing to fix it.

This is a staggering failure of leadership. We’re in a moment when the need for housing investment is both urgent and bipartisan. The business community, municipal leaders and housing advocates are all aligned: New Hampshire needs more housing, fast. The tools are in place. The need is clear. The only thing missing is political will.

But instead of action, we’re being asked to believe outright lies. Republican lawmakers are quick to tout a handful of “significant housing bills” passed this session. But not one of them carries a single dollar of new investment. Instead, they are zoning tweaks and process changes that won’t move the housing needle at all. The private sector can’t fix New Hampshire’s housing crisis. And no home was ever built with policy language alone.

InvestNH, which used flexible federal dollars to support municipal planning, fast-track approvals and incentivize developers to build modestly priced homes, is being forced to expire with no State-backed replacement. HB572, a bill that would have used InvestNH’s signatures Housing Champions program to build on that success, was passed on consent but stripped of all funding. The Affordable Housing Fund, long championed as the state’s primary vehicle for affordable housing construction, receives no boost, despite a backlog of viable projects ready to go if funding were available.

This is not what leadership looks like. This is what a broken promise looks like. It’s not a strategic priority, as the governor promised, it’s a full-blown retreat.

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New Hampshire voters should not let this moment pass without noticing the deep hypocrisy at play. Gov. Ayotte told us housing was her top priority. Her budget tells a different story.

Rhetoric is easy. Building houses takes resources. If the governor wants to be taken seriously on the issue that residents overwhelmingly cite as their most urgent concern, she needs to prove it through her actions Granite Staters can’t live in talking points — they need roofs over their heads.

Rep. Laurel Stavis (D-Lebanon) serves as the Ranking Democrat on the House Municipal and County Government Committee.