Housing Action
December 19, 2004, Keene Sentinel Editorial
Two years ago (2002), having sifted through data about rents, home prices, incomes,
jobs and building permits, a government task force in Keene determined that
the city immediately needed 900 new housing units.
The conclusion was unique only for its precision; for decades, housing-study
reports have called for more shelter, but usually only in a general sense.
Here, for example, is how the city’s comprehensive plan put it 30 years ago:
“There is a need for new construction of both moderately priced single homes
and apartments, condominiums and townhouses to supply the needs of both the
younger and older segments of the housing market.”
Little of an organized sort has ever resulted from such recommendations
because home-building is a private-sector matter and hand-wringing about
housing shortages is for the public sector. As for the law of supply and
demand, which presumably would satisfy the market’s needs, that’s been
suspended for reasons that cause the eyes to glaze over: The school-tax
system discourages zoning for houses, builders got burned during the last
housing speculation, banks are reticent because they got burned too, people
don’t want to convert open space to pavement, materials prices are going up,
blah, blah and snore.
Today, however, the local housing shortage is getting a new kind of
attention that just might change things. The difference is the participation
of employers who say they can’t find workers because there’s no place for
them to live.
Hence, companies, chambers of commerce and other economic interests are
beginning to get together in the Keene area in much the same way similar
parties have teamed up on the Seacoast and in the Upper Valley to improve
the housing stock.
The organizations aren’t blindly rah-rah about every housing construction
plan. More appropriately, they’re vetting agencies that informally assess
the design, shape and environmental qualities of housing proposals for the
benefit of local boards that review them. They also produce studies and
local witnesses to counterbalance the sometimes fevered not-in-my-backyard
instincts of some housing opponents.
It remains to be seen whether the new local entity - Heading for Home: A
Regional Housing Coalition - can help usher in responsible new housing
projects, as the organizations on the Seacoast and Upper Valley have done.
But, given the logic that adequate and affordable housing isn’t just a
feel-good thing but a community necessity, and that the most effective tool
of problem-solving isn’t a wish list but a strategy, the initiative
certainly has appeal.