Portsmouth gets $250,000 InvestNH grant to hire a Community Housing Navigator

PORTSMOUTH − The city has been awarded a $250,000 grant from InvestNH, a $100 million state initiative, to hire a community housing navigator, a new staff member charged with advancing Portsmouth’s goals to expand housing supply.

After applying for the grant last month with New Hampshire Housing, the city, one of six municipalities to receive it, was awarded the grant on Oct. 13.

The City Council unanimously approved the acceptance of the grant funding, which will expire in September 2024 at the latest, at its Monday night meeting. The grant will be administered by New Hampshire Housing, Plan NH and the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.

Planning department director Beverly Mesa-Zendt explained the role that a community housing navigator would play in Portsmouth in a memorandum written to City Manager Karen Conard.

“The Community Housing Navigators will serve as local coordinators of housing regulatory changes and housing development activities,” she wrote. “This will include working with outside consultants and municipal staff to identify regulatory changes needed to promote greater levels of housing development.”

InvestNH, launched this summer, is a state program aiming to quicken the pace of affordable housing development across New Hampshire. Funded by the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery by using American Rescue Plan Act money, $5 million of InvestNH is being given to municipalities in order for them to update their existing land use policies and increase housing, per New Hampshire Housing.

Councilor Beth Moreau commended Mesa-Zendt for drafting the grant application in a week’s time and noted that, for the next two years, the city will have at its disposal a funded staffer whose sole focus is examining housing opportunities in Portsmouth.

“I think this is going to be very helpful for the next two years to have somebody that not only can help (with) planning, but I sort of see this person (helping to) educate the community, reach out to the community, getting feedback and really being that go-between,” she said.

Mayor Deaglan McEachern said that, for elected officials and city staff, the “toughest” calls come from citizens who are experiencing homelessness or housing-related challenges.

“We have a great staff that tries to piece some of that together but it’s often helping people find legal assistance or legal aid,” he said. “Having somebody that’s not only dedicated on how we can navigate this crisis together, but on the acute problems where somebody is in distress and needs a hand to walk them through finding housing and temporary housing … I’m so excited about the big picture but also those smaller conversations that we can have.”

Mesa-Zendt outlined several key goals the city’s community housing navigator will look to achieve. One objective is to include in city housing discussions the voices of those “most impacted by regulatory changes and housing availability,” in addition to studying market impacts on local housing affordability, “facilitate housing diversity in neighborhoods,” and increase incentives for the development of affordable housing.

In her letter to Conard, Mesa-Zendt further noted that the city has applied for an $82,000 grant from New Hampshire Housing that would in part fund a housing market feasibility study.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth NH gets $250K state grant for Community Housing Navigator