A Paper from CARSEY RESEARCH: University of New Hampshire, Carsey School of Public Policy,  Fall 2017, Jessica A. Carson and Marybeth J. Mattingly

Rural Housing Challenges Through the Lens of Two New England Communities

 “In this brief, [Jessica A. Carson and Marybeth J. Mattingly] use interview and focus group data to describe some of the ways that restricted rural housing stock affects working families in two rural New England counties, and explore solutions proposed by rural residents and experts to make housing affordable …

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“Subsidies and publicly funded programs can play a part in alleviating the challenges of affordable rural housing, but  addressing the issue of affordable housing in rural places will require a variety of approaches. For instance, at the local level, residents can encourage local zoning and planning boards to align town regulations with “inclusionary zoning” practices, such as requiring a certain percentage of housing units to meet affordability standards and offering incentives to developers for constructing affordable dwellings. Municipalities might also loosen or alter zoning restrictions to reduce lot size requirements and allow construction of structures other than traditional single-family
dwellings, including duplexes, in-law apartments, backyard cottages, townhouses, or bungalow courts.”