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The Dartmouth
July 15, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Hanover to add more affordable housing

Hanover, in conjunction with the Twin Pines Housing Trust, will expand and improve its affordable housing by replacing current units with newer, senior-specific units in downtown Hanover.

Despite potential concerns that the units will be rented out to College students for a large profit, the legislation will require residents to own the units, and there are laws in place restricting to whom affordable housing units can be sold, Twin Pines executive director Andrew Winter said.

“We generally use various federal government resources — including low-income housing tax credits — and those usually have very strict rules regarding renting to students, so that historically has not been an issue with our properties,” Winter said.

Studies have shown that the particular set of demographic and socioeconomic factors in Hanover make it difficult to provide affordable and workforce housing in Hanover, according to the town’s Housing and Development Plan, which was published 2010. Gile Hill, a 120-unit mixed housing development with 61 affordable units for families, was built after a study by Hadfield Associates in 2003 found that Hanover had the second highest level of unmet low- and moderate-income housing need in the region.

Part of the lack of affordable housing was attributed to the fact that much of the affordable housing that does exist is rented out to Dartmouth College students, who move off campus either due to the fact that it is cheaper or because they have difficulty finding accommodation in College housing, according to the Housing and Development Plan.

Other contributing factors included that land costs are higher than in any other town in the region and that sites suitable for commercial expansion or new construction are rare. As a result of the high costs, many employees in Hanover businesses cannot afford to reside in Hanover, necessitating that they commute long distances from other towns to work.

Twin Pines hopes to expand affordable living opportunities in Hanover, Winter said.

“Hopefully it will provide increased opportunities for seniors who are interested in living in Hanover, either because they have pre-existing ties with the town, or if they have family in town or if they work there,” said Winter.

Currently, there are 24 units in the Summer Park senior housing facility, which are quickly deteriorating and have exhausted their usability, chair of the Hanover Affordable Housing Commission Bruce Altobelli said. The trust hopes to replace the current affordable housing in town with units with more modern standards.

”We want to basically replace it with new housing that’s more energy efficient, better-laid out, and with more convenient units,” Altobelli said. “Right now there are no elevators. In the new housing, this will be a requirement.”

He also said that existing units are too small by modern expectations.

Director of communications at the New Hampshire Housing Authority Jane Law said that state legislation on housing changes every year, though she could not pinpoint any specific legislation from this year. She said that though New Hampshire has no minimum requirement for the amount of affordable housing per county, housing is more in demand in the southeastern corner of the state, as well as in the Upper Valley and on the Sea Coast. Law attributes the greater demand for housing to the more populous nature of those areas.

New Hampshire’s Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published statistics saying that there are 22,270 families who live in affordable housing units across the states, though 1,111 of those were occupied by the elderly or disabled.

Established in 1990, Twin Pines works to provide affordable housing across the Upper Valley, according to their website. Until recently, the non-profit organization has mostly focused on affordable housing for families, though Winter said that the initiative has one other senior-specific compound in White River Junction.

In all, the non-profit has built and maintained 189 affordable housing units in the Upper Valley. The organization defines affordable housing as housing with payments that consist of less than 30 percent of a family’s income. This will be the organization’s first affordable housing effort for seniors in New Hampshire, though they have worked with the town on the Giles Project, which developed affordable units for families.