Below Market Rate Housing Trust Fund

The Portsmouth NH City Council voted in 2025 to accept the recommendations of the Housing Blue Ribbon Committee and the City Trustees of Trust Funds to establish a Below Market Rate Housing Trust Fund. The Trust supports the City Council’s goal to enhance the supply of housing choices, specifically the supply of below market rate housing options and is being overseen by the Trustees of the Trust Funds.

The City's Housing Blue Ribbon Committee worked with the City’s Legal Department and Trustees of the Trust Funds to craft the language of the Trust so that it would be flexible while accomplishing the objective of adding below market rate housing units to the City.

The Below Market Rate Housing Trust Fund is designed to receive funds from donations, grants, and the inaugural contributions of $250,000 each from the City and SoBow Square, LLC. The funds will be used by the City to initiate and facilitate activities in partnership with public, nonprofit, and private housing developers in support of projects and initiatives for below market rate housing. The terms of the Trust define below market rate as “affordable to those households earning no more than 100 percent of the average median income.”

The Below Market Rate Housing Trust Fund may be used for activities related to the creation and maintenance of below market rate housing, such as, but not limited to, the following:

Assisting the City in acquiring land for below-market-rate housing
Conducting community outreach and engagement
Funding studies, analysis, planning, and consultant efforts
Purchasing and rehabilitating existing housing
Constructing new housing
Retaining existing housing
Managing and administer housing and programs
Providing subsidies for the creation of housing