WEST LEBANON — As gas prices reach a national average of $4.54 a gallon, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. weighed in on what Congress can do about the spike in visit to the Upper Valley this week.
The options are slim “so long as President Trump continues the war in Iran and the cost of oil continues to go up,” she said Thursday at the Village at Crafts Hill, an affordable housing complex in West Lebanon.
Gas prices have been on the rise since the war with Iran began in late February.
“What we need to do is end this war. We need to stop the increasing cost of energy,” Shaheen said.
Shaheen, 79, who was elected governor of New Hampshire for the first time in 1996 and became senator in 2009, prepares to leave the Senate next winter.
Reflecting on the legacy of her career, especially in light of the current political moment when the Trump administration is making efforts to undo policies related to sustainable energy and cut funding for affordable housing, Shaheen said, “Democracy is not about winning a fight or losing a fight, democracy is about staying engaged.”
“What I hope people remember about my time in the Senate and in elective office is that I worked to try to make a difference for the people of New Hampshire,” she said.
Shaheen visited the Village at Crafts Hill to discuss the importance of preserving New Hampshire’s subsidized housing. For the past week, she has been on an “Affordability Action Tour” in which she’s made stops across the state including the Village to discuss rising energy, housing and health care costs.
At the Village, she and members of Twin Pines Housing Trust discussed the 21st Century Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (ROAD) to Housing Act, which comprises three bills that Shaheen has put forward to protect affordable housing for New Hampshire residents.
One of the bills, the Strategy and Investment in Rural Housing Preservation Act, seeks to help low-income tenants maintain access to affordable housing even after facilities have paid off their mortgages to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA.
As it stands, once facilities have paid off their mortgage, they’re no longer eligible for subsidized housing through the USDA, unless they apply for Stand-Alone Rental Assistance, which was introduced a few years ago.
This was an issue at the Village when the mortgage with the USDA drew to a close in 2015. Tenants at the complex were at risk of losing access to subsidized housing until Twin Pines purchased the property from David Hodges’ estate with a $6.8 million loan from the USDA Rural Development program, which allowed the property to maintain its subsidies, the Valley News reported at the time.
The precarious situation the tenants found themselves in underscores the importance of decoupling mortgages from accessing housing subsidies, Andrew Winter, Twin Pines’ executive director, said.
It’s a “tool in our tool belt to keep these houses affordable,” Winter said.
In New Hampshire, housing prices have gone up 65%, while incomes have only increased about half that amount, Shaheen said during her visit to the Village.
The 100-unit West Lebanon complex currently has a waitlist of about 300 people for its one-bedroom units, while about 60 people are waiting to get a two-bedroom unit.
John Dunham and his wife have lived at the Village for the past four years, after the couple lost everything in a house fire.
Living at the Village has “been an amazing experience,” Dunham, 71, said in conversation with Shaheen.
He enjoys watching deer and other wild animals graze outside his window, and organizing potlucks and other events at the Village.
“We’ve got a good thing going here,” he said.
