Commentary: Who gets to belong here?

Every conversation about affordable housing in Manchester comes down to one question: Who is this community for?

The people who need housing here aren’t strangers. They’re the clerks in our hardware store, the lift operators on the mountain, the small business owners, the tradespeople, and the retirees who’ve built their lives here but now face being priced out of the place they call home.

That includes the people we count on every day, the ones who plow our roads in winter, keep our parks open in summer, and show up when we call 911. Yet many of them are priced out of the very community they serve. This isn’t a problem we might face someday. It’s happening right now.

I’ve also spoken to town staff spending more than half of their income just to rent nearby, and they’re not alone. Too many of the people who keep Manchester running, from our police officers to our roads crew, can’t afford to live here. For them, staying isn’t about choosing a different lifestyle. It’s about whether it’s even possible. We should be finding ways to say yes to the people who already give so much to this town.

And it’s not just town staff. Families are already leaving. I recently spoke with a single mom. She’s proud to raise her children here, volunteers at events, shows up for neighbors, and devotes herself to keeping our children safe. When her lease ends in a few months, she has no affordable place to go in Manchester.

If she leaves, we don’t just lose a neighbor. We lose a parent who’s raised her kids here and a community member whose absence will be felt in ways you can’t measure in dollars. Her children, known and loved here, would be uprooted and moved across the state.

She’s not alone in facing this. A young teacher told me she spends nearly two hours on the road every day because she can’t find a rental here. A retired couple wanted to downsize but couldn’t find anything in the town they’ve called home for years. And then there are the families who were fortunate enough to buy before the pandemic, when prices and interest rates were still within reach. Many of them are what I call “housing locked.” Even if they wanted to move, they can’t find another home in Manchester they can afford at today’s prices or with a comparable mortgage rate. They’re stuck, not because they lack the will to move, but because the market has closed the door behind them. These aren’t rare exceptions. This is what an increasing number of our neighbors are experiencing. If we want them to stay, we need to make it possible to say yes to options that work for them.

These stories reveal a broader truth. Manchester’s housing shortage didn’t happen overnight. It’s not the fault of one landlord or even the people who wrote the rules we have now. It’s the result of years of saying no to projects, no to new ideas, and no to the people who want to call this place home. And let’s be honest, some of the loudest opposition to new housing isn’t really about traffic or building heights. It’s about fear. Fear of change. Fear of “those kinds of people” moving in. I’ve heard those exact words more times than I can count, and it’s both frequent and personally alarming. But “those kinds of people” are already here, working hard, paying taxes, volunteering, and raising families. The question is whether we’ll choose to keep them. That choice begins with being willing to say yes to the right solutions.

This is personal for my family as well. My husband, Jonathan West, who serves on the Manchester Selectboard and chairs the Housing Task Force, is a tenth-generation resident of Manchester. Together we’re raising our four children here, and I carry that investment into my service on the Manchester Planning Commission, as a Justice of the Peace, and on the Southwest Tech School Board.

Here’s how we move forward. We can protect what makes Manchester special and still make room for the people who make it work. That starts with saying yes to housing that reflects our values, homes that are affordable for the people already here, designed to fit the character of our town, and built in a way that meets the needs of our community today and for the future. We need to start saying yes more often, because every yes opens the door for someone to stay, to return, or to finally put down roots here.

We can do that by allowing more housing options, from accessory apartments to modest multi-family buildings, so young families, seniors, and workers can live here. We can update our zoning to allow thoughtful development near services, schools, and transit, so we’re not pushing people farther away from the places they need to be. We can support partnerships between the town, local employers, and developers to create workforce housing that keeps essential workers close to the jobs that depend on them.

None of this means giving up what we love about Manchester. It means investing in it. It means making choices that keep neighbors in their homes, schools full of familiar faces, and our economy strong because the people who make this town work can still afford to live here.

In the end, the Manchester I know doesn’t turn its back on neighbors. It finds ways to keep them here. The choice is ours. What comes next is up to all of us, and it starts with the courage to say yes and to keep saying it more often than not.

Published on August 14, 2025 via Manchester Journal.