HOUSING UPDATE #23 A DESPERATE NEED FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Dear Portsmouth resident,
With the Sherburne School Project behind it, the Housing Committee is evaluating 4 other city-owned lots as potential sites for workforce housing at its March 13 meeting (5:30pm City Hall). One example below: the lower City Hall lot. See all 4 lots here. Zoom in and speak up for workforce housing.
Could be built over existing lot, keeping City parking
Advocates continue to believe the City must move faster. We'll keep track of new housing units and the specific needs they address. Using a version of the graphic below, we'll identify wins and remaining gaps.
ADVOCATE SHOUT OUT: KARA RODENHIZER
Kara is Executive Director of the Home for All Coalition. She wears many other hats and all are dedicated to some aspect of housing. For her fellow advocates she is a great source of knowledge, experience and enthusiastic support for the challenging mission of creating more affordable housing in the Seacoast.Thanks, Kara!
ON THE RADAR: CO-LIVING FOR DOWNTOWN WORKERS
Young service workers don't need much to call home. Happy to live in small spaces, often happy to live without cars, they make up a large number of our downtown workforce. We're tracking an innovative proposal to house 82 of them right on Congress Street. Stay tuned.
ZONING IS NOT CHILD'S PLAY
Not child's play but in just 240 seconds, you'll be able to explain it to your children. Watch our short info-animation 😀.
Heads up! The City will soon announce the process for updating our Master Plan. The Master Plan represents our overall vision for the City and its future. Our Zoning Ordinance - all 355 pages of it - is the regulatory mechanism meant to make this happen. Currently, they are out of sync; our zoning often conflicts with our housing needs. This is a critical time for the future of housing. Jump-start your thinking here.
We run on 1,000+ volunteer hours a year. We reach out to Portsmouth residents via a very modest budget for social media ads; $35 buys a weeklong Facebook ad. If you can help us with that, thank you.
