A $358 million capital plan,
with no housing in it.
Say so on November 16.

The Council adopted a Housing Action Plan on September 28. The six-year capital plan published six weeks later funds no housing project. Its only land acquisition line — $500,000, programmed for 2031 — is restricted to conservation.

Adopted in September. Unfunded in November.

Most of the plan’s 19 actions make it easier or cheaper to build. Only two keep a home affordable over time, and adoption did not change that count. Portsmouth already knows how: Ruth Lewin Griffin Place on Court Street is what it looks like — the waiting list runs into the hundreds — and the approach the city chose for the Sherburne School is how it gets built: city land, a nonprofit builder, affordability that doesn’t expire.

That approach uses land the city already owns, so it needs no capital appropriation at all — it needs a decision. What the capital plan can do is stop pointing its only land line exclusively at conservation, and the Housing Trust Fund’s recurring revenue is an operating question for the January budget session. Three asks, three different instruments. Naming the right one is what makes them answerable.

Say this — in the Council’s contact form, or at the mic

November 12 is a work session: the Council and Planning Board may request changes there, but it takes no public comment. November 16 is the joint public hearing, and it is the one to come to. The contact form reaches all nine councilors — three of them sit on the Committee — and goes into the Council’s public record when it includes your name and address. If you rent your home, say so: the plan has no other way of hearing from you.

Does this produce a home that is still affordable in twenty years?

Only 2 of the plan’s 19 actions pass that test — not nearly enough to make a difference. Tax breaks expire, and the market reprices everything else at resale. Ruth Lewin Griffin Place on Court Street shows what lasting affordability looks like; the approach the city chose for the Sherburne School shows how to produce it: city-owned land, a nonprofit builder, and a permanent covenant. The plan, adopted September 28, still doesn’t make that standing practice — and the capital plan published six weeks later contains no housing project at all.

Make it the city’s standing practice to build permanently affordable workforce housing on land the city already owns — and name the first site. This needs no capital appropriation. It needs a decision.

What can I do? Be at the capital plan hearing on November 16.

Two minutes is enough. Paste the sentences below into the Council’s contact form — one message reaches all nine councilors, three of whom sit on the Housing Committee, and it goes into the public record with your name and address. Better still, come on November 16: that is the joint public hearing on the city’s six-year capital plan, and it is where the public speaks on the record. The Planning Board votes to recommend on November 19 and the Council adopts on December 7, so after next week the content is settled. If you rent your home, as half of Portsmouth does, say so — you’re the main beneficiary of this work, and the plan has no other way of hearing from you.

A household earning exactly the area median cannot afford the typical one-bedroom in Portsmouth today. On these figures a studio is the largest home that still fits.

Three homes where there was one.

While the big decisions get made at City Hall, ADUs and second units are by right on your street now. We condensed 40 pages of city rules into one guide.