Board of Aldermen Page 10
June 14, 2016
same so there was no real recognition of anything within that. I’m not saying that no one reviewed it, |
am sure it was but nothing came about from that. There was one change. Peter’s letter said that there
was no change but there was one change. There were some things that used to be scratched out and
now they are no longer scratched out but essentially it’s the same because all it says is “the city “may”
give notice so it “may” or “may not.” We all know that life safety and health codes are very critical and we
all respect those, the people that are here anyway. We also want the bad landlords to be taken care of
in terms of getting them to correct their situations. When | look back to my original notes from when | first
spoke with this Board and the sub-committee back in February and | made some notes that | suggested
that we have an input and a working session or multiple working sessions to be able to talk about our
concerns. Have three landlords, three tenants, three of the administrative people, legal advice because
we certainly do need that and one independent Alderman who will make sure that things are going in the
right direction and keep on moving. We are not going to get every point that we want but | am not
speaking for everyone and maybe the administrators won't get everything that they want. We are going
to be educated if we do get together, it’s a simple thing. In business we get together to solve problems.
We asked for this a couple of times and the sub-committee did ask us to join them in this area. We had
our spokesperson go up to talk because we knew it would be a professional presentation that would be
effective than just rambling on. Part of his presentation was to say let’s get these work sessions going
and let’s talk about it. That did not take place and |’m very disappointed in that. | hope we can get
something resolved and get a work session going so that we can come to a better conclusion. | think
there is a lot of merit to the law and the legal input and there are some concerns from the landlords and |
don’t want to repeat that because we have said it over and over again. Hopefully we will work together,
thank you.
Mr. Robert Tourigny, Executive Director, NeighborWorks, Southern New Hampshire
NeighborWorks is a landlord and property owner here in Nashua. We own 19 Temple Street which is
just down the block from the property that the Mayor was discussing this evening. We have another 38
apartments here in Nashua and over 400 units in Southern New Hampshire. We own and develop
affordable housing, we provide consumer education to families to make good, wise decisions about their
housing options and that doesn’t include just homeowner options but also in rental housing. We provide
landlord trainings and seminars to help people become good landlord because they might want to buy a
two-family or a three-family and live in one unit and rent out the other. You have established a
Substandard Living Conditions Committee so | don’t need to tell you about the dire affordable rental
housing situation here but | would like to explain why | think the enforcement of the ordinance you are
considering tonight is important in impacting those conditions. Each year the New Hampshire Housing
Authority surveys the owners of some 15,000 rental units across the State of New Hampshire including
over 2,200 apartments here in Nashua. In doing so they are able to calculate the median rent and the
vacancy rate for each region. Nashua continues to maintain its place near the top of the highest rent list,
only slightly behind Portsmouth. What is most concerning from the survey is the steadily declining
vacancy rate that we see in our portfolios. Vacancy rates are down by 50% in the last six or seven years
and | think that’s probably attributable to the economy and the situation that was mentioned earlier. As a
landiord we love high occupancy and low vacancy rates but when vacancy falls below 2% in a
community which is what it is here, it essentially becomes a market where an owner can rent out literally
any unit in any condition because the demand is so strong. We are in what | would call the equivalent of
a historically high sellers’ market if you were to compare it to the home ownership or for sale arena. So
what does all of this data mean, it means that it puts an extra burden on local jurisdictions like yourselves
to crack down on code enforcement because of what | said earlier, you can literally rent any unit in any
condition to someone because the demand is so high. When sitting your seat you need to look at the
carrots and the sticks that you need to keep property owners in compliance. With the demand for rentals
are at an all-time high you need to be able to hold property owners accountable and more than just a
minor slap of the wrist. When the cost of fines and fees are considered to be just another cost of doing
business because business is good then it can create the substandard living conditions situation that you
are working to address. | think that the enforcement ordinance you are considering tonight is a step
