The Local Housing Crisis We Built Ourselves

How STRs, out-of-state investors, and NIMBYism froze the market, and left our neighbors outside.

“Housing isn’t the problem. Housing is the solution. But only if we let it happen near us.”

You’ve seen the tents.

The cars parked behind the gas station overnight.

The backpack slouched against the park bench like it’s given up hope.

The family sliding into a motel room with grocery bags and one duffel ( trying to make Tuesday feel like home.)

This isn’t a housing crisis.

This is a reckoning.

And it’s not just happening “somewhere else.”

It’s here.

It’s us.

And maddeningly ( insultingly ) it’s a crisis we built ourselves.

One “Not In My Backyard” at a time.

🧱 

This Didn’t Just Happen. We Made It Happen.

Let’s call it what it is.

Over the past decade, we watched, ( and yes, let ) the housing market shift from shelter to speculation.

• Out-of-state investors snatched up homes they’ll never visit

• STRs turned sleepy neighborhoods into rotating door hotels

• Zoning codes fossilized in amber somewhere between 1972 and “over my dead body”

• And local buyers? Outbid, outmatched, and out of luck ( even with W-2s, 720 credit, ) and dreams as big as their pre-approval

And now we ask, wide-eyed and mystified:

• Why can’t our teachers live where they teach?

• Why are families with jobs and kids and grocery bills living in tents?

• Why has housing become a luxury raffle instead of a human right?

Here’s your answer, neat and painful:

Because housing became a commodity.

And building it became a fight.

🔒 

The System’s in Lockdown. And People Are Locked Out.

Here’s what a jammed housing ecosystem looks like:

• Homeowners cling to 3% mortgage rates like a life raft

• Buyers chase scraps, overpay for homes that need gut renos

• Rentals? Scarce, overpriced, or managed by someone whose idea of “maintenance” is sending a guy named Todd once a quarter from Tampa

Meanwhile, every time the city proposes housing ( or heaven forbid, a shelter ) the same folks stand up and say:

“Not here.”

“Not in my backyard.”

“Not near the school.”

“Not near the water.”

“Not near my equity.”

But when every neighborhood says “not here,”

you’re left with nowhere.

🏛️ 

The Mayor Didn’t Create This. We Did.

Say what you want about the mayor.

Maybe you don’t like him.

Maybe you don’t like where he lives.

Maybe you’ve said things about him over coffee that you wouldn’t say in a public comment meeting (though, judging by recent meetings… maybe you would).

But here’s the truth:

He inherited this mess.

The next mayor will, too.

And so will the one after that, if we don’t change.

So the better question isn’t “Do we like him?”

It’s:

Are we willing to support leadership when they try to fix it?

Or will we keep screaming NO until the tents multiply and the park benches fill?

Because when you block housing and shelters and ADUs and zoning reform and literally every tool that exists to fix this…

…you’re not preserving the neighborhood.

You’re condemning your neighbors.

📍 

This Is Not Just a Laconia Story

This is happening in:

• Gilford – where rentals are older than the high school mascot

• Belmont – where Airbnbs outnumber full-time landlords

• Gilmanton – where “workforce housing” means a tent near the lake

• Meredith – where the town feels quaint, but the crisis is very, very real

The names change. It’s happening everywhere, actually…

The consequences don’t.

✋ 

Now What? Here’s the Hard Truth:

• Housing that people can afford is not a downgrade.

• Duplexes aren’t dangerous. They’re necessary.

• ADUs don’t ruin neighborhoods. They save them.

• And saying “Not near me” is not a policy. It’s a surrender.

We need courage, not convenience.

Because you can’t fix a housing crisis without ( shocker ) housing.

And you sure as hell can’t solve homelessness if you won’t let anyone live near you.

🧠 Final Thought

You can’t demand fewer tents and then protest every roof.

You can’t ask the city to act and then fight every action.

You can’t claim to want solutions if your default answer is always no.

So I’ll ask again:

If not here, where?

If not us, who?

—

Vanessa Saunders

Realtor. Grandma.

Unlicensed Therapist for Housing Denial!