O P I N I O N
THE SOAPBOX
Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.
Imagine working full-time in Manchester and still not being able to find a place to live in your own city. That is the reality for too many families today.
Housing Champions, a state program created in 2023, helps cities and towns that are willing to build more homes. It is voluntary; communities choose to take part. In return, they commit to local changes that make it easier to build housing.
The program helps pay for the basics that make housing possible. Water lines. Sewer lines. Fire safety systems. Power. These are the things every apartment and home needs before a single family can move in.
This support matters because infrastructure is often the biggest barrier to new housing. A city can allow more homes on paper, but without enough pipes, wires, and safety systems, nothing gets built.
Manchester stepped up. The city changed local rules. It invested its own money. It met clear state standards. As a result, Manchester received state funding tied directly to new housing.
In 2025, Manchester received $205,500 in funding for 51 completed workforce homes. These are for nurses, teachers, retail workers, and first responders. Homes that working families can afford.
Manchester also received $116,753 to upgrade fire safety and electrical systems at an affordable housing site. Those upgrades allow 30 homes instead of 15. Without them, the project would stall.
Other communities across New Hampshire have seen similar results. In 2024, Housing Champion towns and cities approved nearly half of all new homes in the state. The program rewards action and delivers real outcomes.
To see why this matters, picture a family in Manchester. Two parents. Both work full-time– a labor and delivery nurse and a high school teacher. They want to stay near their kids’ school and their friends and family members. They search for months. Rents rise out of the price range. Affordable homes sell fast. Each week they look farther from the city and even out of state. With that, the commute grows long, child care gets harder, and not being near family and friend support, as well as family time at dinner, doing homework, and bedtime stories, shrinks.
Programs like Housing Champions are what make it possible to change that story. They help create homes close to jobs, schools, and support networks.
Now, Republicans in the House are moving a bill to repeal the program.
Ending Housing Champions would pull support from communities that have already done the work and planned projects around it. It would slow housing. It would raise costs. It would break trust between the state and local governments.
Manchester has done its part. The state should keep its word.
Contact your state representative. Ask them to vote against repealing the Housing Champions program, HB 1196. Tell them Manchester needs solutions, not setbacks.
Rep. Karen Hegner, D-Manchester, represents Hillsborough District 41.
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