HB1661

Helps address the NH housing crisis.

Times are expensive and we need to support our essential workers now more than ever and helping someone toward home ownership is a good way to keep them in the community. It's a win.

Dear Legislators, Essential Workers have a difficult time affording even median home sale prices in NH. The program at New Hampshire Housing can provide downpayment assistance. It only makes sense in this time housing shortages that we help to support needed essential workers. Please support this bill. Thank you. Melissa Chapman

In our current housing crisis, we need to prioritize the ability of people to live here.

I support HB1661 because I believe NH’s housing crisis is a top 3 or 4 issue for Granite Staters and this attempts to expand a proven program for housing in the state. We should be supporting legislation with dollars and policy initiatives that have demonstrated success. I urge OTP of HB1661.

I support the Community Heroes initiative towards helping essential workers to afford housing.

Provide financial assistance for home ownership for essential workers.

I strongly urge support for this appropriation as one step toward ameliorating the current housing crisis. The Community Heroes program deserves expansion.

Strongly Oppose

We don't need for eviction to be easier than it already is. We have a housing crisis and this will not help.

Essential workers should be given some additional support for housing.

My name is Karen and I live and vote in Bristol. I SUPPORT this bill because it expands the Housing Finance Authority's Community Heroes initiative, which provides financial assistance for homeownership to essential workers. We must make it easier for our essential workers to live in the communities they are employed in.

The state should be doing all it can to assist people with housing needs. Please support this bill.

Our essential workers need all the support we can give them. Let's make it easier for them to achieve home ownership.

Please expand the Housing Finance Authority's Community Heroes initiative, which provides financial assistance for homeownership to essential workers. This is very important and I support this bill.

Essential workers should have access to affordable housing just like everyone else should.

Why would we get rid of one our biggest forms of revenue?

ICE is not following professional law enforcement standards. History will not be kind to the current abuses.

If we are to be a functioning state, we need a workforce that can afford to live in this state. This bill will provide financial assistance to support homeownership for certain essential workers.

Dear Chair and Members of the Committee, I write in strong support of HB 1661, a targeted and responsible investment in New Hampshire’s workforce and housing stability through the expansion of the Community Heroes program at the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority. Across our state, essential workers—educators, healthcare professionals, first responders, childcare providers, and service members—are increasingly priced out of the very communities they serve. This housing mismatch is not theoretical; it affects school staffing, healthcare access, emergency response times, and local economic vitality. HB 1661 directly addresses this challenge by expanding homeownership opportunities for workers who are fundamental to New Hampshire’s quality of life. HB 1661 is especially effective because it is focused and disciplined. Rather than creating a new bureaucracy or imposing mandates, the bill leverages the expertise of the Housing Finance Authority to administer assistance efficiently and transparently. By providing dedicated funding through the Affordable Housing Fund, the bill ensures accountability while maintaining flexibility to respond to market conditions. Homeownership is one of the most powerful tools for community stability and economic security. Helping essential workers buy homes strengthens neighborhoods, improves workforce retention, and reduces long-term public costs associated with employee turnover and housing instability. HB 1661 recognizes that housing policy is workforce policy—and treats it accordingly. Importantly, this bill reflects sound fiscal judgment. The appropriation is modest, clearly defined, and capped for administrative costs. It represents a smart, preventative investment rather than a reactive expense. New Hampshire’s housing challenges will require multiple solutions, but HB 1661 is exactly the kind of practical, bipartisan step we should be taking now—supporting those who support our communities and ensuring they can afford to live where they work. For these reasons, I respectfully urge the committee to find HB 1661 ought to pass. Thank you for your consideration and for your continued service to the people of New Hampshire. Respectfully submitted, David John Preece State Representative, Hillsborough District 17 Manchester, New Hampshire