2023 Legislative Report
New Hampshire Legal Assistance began the 2023 legislative session tracking more than 250 bills touching each of our project areas: housing, domestic violence, aging, public benefits, juvenile justice, and immigration. Housing was a huge focus for us given the challenging housing market. We prioritized several proactive bills that would have given tenants more protections including: more notice before rent increases (HB 567), preventing discrimination against voucher holders (HB 469), and clarifying eviction procedures due to renovations (HB 401). Unfortunately, these all failed to pass the House.
One harmful bill that managed to pass the House was HB 117, which would have made it easier for landlords to evict tenants without good cause. This bill is especially problematic considering New Hampshire’s vacancy rate of less than 0.5%. Thankfully, along with many partners, we gathered enough support in the Senate to defeat the bill. We were part of successful efforts to include significant investments in the budget related to housing: $50 million for affordable rental housing production, a new municipal incentive program, and an increase in homeless service resources. We are actively participating in the House’s Special Committee on Housing.
Bills related to public benefits fared better this session. The Medicaid expansion bill (SB 263), supported by a broad coalition, was included in the FY 2024-2025 state budget with a seven-year reauthorization of the Granite Advantage program to ensure that low-income Granite Staters don’t lose access to critical health care services. Other benefit-related bills that passed this session include: SB 172, allowing court appointed guardians to receive TANF benefits and SB 42, eliminating interest on non-fraud unemployment overpayments and SB 110, regarding local welfare, which we expect to improve access for our homeless clients.
We also managed to once again defeat a bill to reduce the number of weeks available to Granite Staters seeking unemployment benefits. Unfortunately, we were unable to get Medicaid Direct Certification over the finish line. We will continue to work on this, so children receiving Medicaid (with incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty level) can become automatically eligible for free and reduced school lunch.
In partnership with the Alliance for Healthy Aging, we successfully got SB 36 included in the state budget. This was a heavily negotiated compromise that establishes a framework for a system of care for healthy aging in New Hampshire. Additionally, investments were secured in the budget to improve access to services so older adults can age in their homes and communities and Medicaid rates were increased across the board.
As part of the Juvenile Justice Reform Project, we worked on multiple compromises related to the closure of the Sununu Youth Services Center (SB 1 and HB 49). Our effort to secure right to counsel for juveniles was unsuccessful, but we’ll keep advocating for this next session. NHLA also joined coalitions to defeat two potentially harmful bills: SB 132, which would have prohibited municipalities from enacting sanctuary city policies and SB 272, the parents’ bill of rights which targeted LGBTQ+ youth in schools.
There were many terrible bills related to family law introduced in the House again this session. Luckily, our domestic violence advocates defeated the worst of them. There will be more defensive work to do in this space and we will continue to actively engage the House’s Special Committee on the Family Division of the Circuit Court.
Last, but definitely not least, an additional $750,000 per year was included in the state budget to support NHLA’s domestic violence work. This is the highest level of state funding that NHLA has ever received by a significant margin.