Affordable Housing vs. Workforce Housing: What’s the difference? Part 2.
- August 20, 2024
- Housing
Workforce Housing
Workforce housing is another term that is floating around the Monadnock Region. Before we can discuss the term, we must first identify the “workforce.” Luckily, that is not difficult.
Do you work? I work (I’m working right now!). Does your neighbor work? My neighbors certainly work. What about the cashiers at Hannaford, and the pharmacy technicians at CVS, and the staff at the Keene Rec Center?
Definition:
Them, you, I, and your kid’s third grade teacher all count as “workforce” because we all work! Therefore, the term “workforce housing” in New Hampshire means affordable housing (housing that costs less than or equal to 30% of your total yearly income) for us – the people who keep the Monadnock Region alive, well, and chugging along every single day.
Don’t worry, there’s no catch, but it does get a little more complicated. It would be a problem if the only type of housing was a one-bedroom flat with an itty-bitty kitchen and a teeny-tiny bathroom. That would not be appropriate for a family with two working parents, a grandparent, a baby, a four-year-old, and a set of 11-year-old twins, even if that apartment was technically “affordable.” Yikes.
Similarly, I do not need a house with four bedrooms and three bathrooms; a one-bedroom apartment is perfect for myself and my dog.
So, not only does “workforce” housing have to be cost-sustainable, it also has to fit the worker’s needs. A place that has adequate workforce housing provides many types of housing that are affordable for a variety of workers.
Explanation:
But why isn’t there enough workforce housing in the first place? If you’ve read the previous blog post, you know that this phenomenon is partially due to retirees opting to stay in their single-family homes even as they exit the workforce. Without constructing more affordable family-sized housing stock or smaller units for retirees to downsize, young workers are having a difficult time finding places to live for themselves or to raise families and retirees are having trouble finding appropriately sized housing. This clogs up the housing-cycle pipe, putting even more pressure on the already-tight housing market. Increased demand means increased prices, and since wages have not kept up with housing costs, workers are having a much harder time finding housing (light blue for monthly rent, dark blue for home price).
There are many reasons why retirees are staying in their homes, including a lack of smaller units, affordable senior housing facilities, a drop in intergenerational living, and tight personal budgets. But these retirees are living in what would be workforce housing, so to unclog the pipe, we need to make it bigger by building more workforce housing.
So, any talk of increasing workforce housing just means that people think that there should be more housing options for workers like you and me. And since workforce housing must be affordable and suitable for the occupants, increasing the quantity of workforce housing involves building new housing of many types: single-family homes, multi-unit houses, apartment buildings, ADUs, senior units, and more. We need all-hands-on-deck to free up housing for workers!
Some workforce housing initiatives in the Monadnock Region include housing projects such as the Swanzey Township Housing (off Old Homestead Highway) and Jaffrey Mills Apartments (downtown on Main Street), loosening zoning ordinances to allow for more multi-unit homes, and helping retirees downsize so that young people can purchase homes that they can afford (such as the Harper Acres project in Keene).
To learn more about the state of workforce housing in the Monadnock Region, visit www.swrpc.org/housing.
Sources: Southwest New Hampshire Regional Housing Needs Assessment
