CONCORD, NH – A program recently touted by the state as critical to building more housing, yet not funded in the current state budget, took another step toward being scrapped, with a New Hampshire House vote in favor of repealing it Thursday.
The House voted 185 to 166 to repeal the Housing Champions program, which awarded $5 million in grants in over the last two years to 11 towns and cities in exchange for removing barriers to housing development. The Senate must also vote to repeal the program, and the governor must sign the bill, for it to become official.
The program, created in 2023, was not funded in the current state budget, but 10 more municipalities last month were designated Housing Champions, making them eligible for grants through the program in the future. Some $2.6 million in grants that were awarded during the program’s first round, but not drawn down on yet, may not be distributed if the program is repealed, according to a fiscal note to the bill by the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, which facilitates the program.
Supporters of the repeal said that the program has no accountability for how grant money is used, it favors certain communities, and it hasn’t done anything to lower property taxes. Those against repeal said it’s already shown that it can help make inroads in the state’s housing crisis.
State Rep. Joe Alexander, R-Goffstown, who helped create the program, Thursday urged House members to vote to repeal it.
“It needs to be repealed, it’s not doing its job,” Alexander said.
He said that the money hasn’t been used to lower property taxes, and “most of the Housing Champions [property] taxes continue to rise at unsustainable levels.”
He cited an article in the Concord Monitor that reported, among other issues with the grant money, that despite Housing Champion designation, new housing units in the city decreased by 75% from 2024 to 2025.
Alexander also cited the fact that the program is not funded in the current state budget. “It’s just another government program that’s not doing it’s job,” he said. “It needs to go.”
Speaking against the repeal, Rep. Karen Hegner, D-Manchester, pointed to Manchester’s success. The city was awarded two Housing Champion grants, totaling $322,253, that supported needed housing and other related programs in the city.
The towns and cities that earned Housing Champions designation “followed the rules,” Hegner said. “They put in the effort, they absorbed the expense, they earned the right to participate. And now, after all that, we’re telling them the support we promised may not come through? That’s not how this is supposed to work.”
The program was first discussed in 2019, but was created in 2023 with support from both parties. The initial $5 million came from American Rescue Plan Act money and provided grants to 11 communities – $1.5 million for workforce housing, $3.5 million for infrastructure improvements. That funding represented 385 built workforce housing units and a potential 2,280 more made possible because of infrastructure upgrades, according to the program’s annual report, which was released Jan. 30.
Aside from work tied to the program, the 28 Housing Champion communities were responsible for permitting 2,643 housing units in 2024, 45% of the total number of units approved in the state that year, according to the BEA’s Current Estimates and Trends in New Hampshire’s Housing Supply for 2026 report, which came out earlier last month.
Housing production grants in the program are awarded after housing is built. Infrastructure grants are awarded for planned work. The communities earn Housing Champion designation by showing specific actions that support housing development, scoring points on a matrix. Grants are awarded to Housing Champions as an incentive to removing barriers to housing development, with actual use of the grant money up to the city or town.
Hegner said Thursday that the grants helped create desperately needed housing “for nurses, teachers, retail workers and first responders – the families that represent the backbone of our communities in which we live, and hopefully, thrive.”
Communities such as Meredith and Exeter, which were recently designated by the program, put in the work to get the designation, expecting to then be able to apply for grant money, Hegner said. With the repeal, they won’t benefit from that work, she said.
“I would hope that our constituents and taxpayers can rely on what we say and intend to do, but if things do not change, we can fail them again,” Hegner said. “We are here to help and make things better, not worse…This program works, so don’t get rid of it. Instead let’s keep moving forward. Let’s choose progress over politics so we can make housing better for all Granite Staters.”
Also speaking against the repeal was Rep. Alexis Simpson, D-Exeter, whose town was designated a Housing Champion last month, who said it’s helping solve the housing crisis by reducing barriers to building.
“It makes no sense to repeal this program when the latest data is data we want to see,” Simpson said.
But Alexander and Rep. Julie Miles, R-Merrimack, who also spoke in favor of repeal, criticized the fact there’s no tracking of how towns and cities spend their grant money. Alexander said that some of the money is being used for things other than housing development.
The grants were “millions in taxpayer dollars needlessly squandered,” Miles said.
With its passage, the bill to repeal the Housing Champions program moves to the Senate for a vote.