Staff reports 11:12 a.m.
Sunday, January 16, 2022 11:12 am
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CONCORD - Gov. Chris Sununu recently wrote a letter to United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging her again to allow states like New Hampshire to use Emergency Rental Assistance Program money to invest in affordable housing for working families across the state.
In the letter Sununu explains that New Hampshire has provided over $85 million through ERAs 1 and 2, but more can be done to help working-class families.
"We believe this funding will have a much greater and longer-term positive impact on the state's working families if we are allowed to invest in our most critical housing related expense - the increase in building costs due to the pandemic," noted Sununu, who first sent a letter to Yellen in May making the same case.
According to Sununu, other positives associated with the greater flexibility include the ability to:
Invest in affordable housing to offset the impact the pandemic has had on the supply of available rental units
Create incentives for public/private partnerships to advance development of affordable housing
Reduce financial risk to incentivize development designed to benefit working families