Housing shortages for the elderly tug at the heartstrings of most people. News outlets write about the problem all the time.
Getting creative to solve New Hampshire’s senior housing crisis
“There’s a well-documented crisis in affordable housing in New Hampshire. State Committee on Aging member Kristi St. Laurent saw the problem first-hand as she tried to help a senior constituent find a place to live after a foreclosure.”
The problem with most housing shortage stories is the shortage of information regarding the numerous places the elderly home seekers were unable to afford. That would be a nice addition to any serious article about any kind of housing in NH.
Could it be that the same people who sympathize with people who cannot afford a home also vote for restrictive zoning? You know, not everyone wants or needs to live in a three bathroom four bedroom colonial set on a ten acre lot.
Take a look at the Town of Hopkinton.
Residents with income below the poverty level in 2009:
This town: 1.8%
Whole state: 6.5%
Residents with income below 50% of the poverty level in 2009:
This town: 0.7%
Whole state: 2.8%
Read more: Hopkinton City Data
Zoning regulations, used as a surgical tool to prevent people from modest means from staying in their home in Hopkinton – or ever moving in, are like a systematic form of gentrified ethnic cleansing.
When zoners and planners in Hopkinton, along with the elite conservation team, stop buying up any available land in the town – there will no one of modest means left.
Hopkinton is in effect, by subtle “rule of law,” a gated community. Don’t think this is by accident.
When people realize what extreme zoning, regional planning, out of control conservation commissions, and regulators of everything a person could make a home of or build an affordable home on, we might see affordable housing.
Until then, snob zoning will keep creating sob stories about unaffordable housing.