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Developers, sponsor press Senate committee to restore original language for housing investment trust bill
Summary
Proponents told the Senate Commerce Committee that House Bill 633 (housing investment trust) would harness private and philanthropic capital to expand starter homes and workforce housing; supporters urged restoring original statutory language while opponents asked for study and legal safeguards.
Michael D’Alfano, the Amherst real-estate professional who drafted the trust concept, told the Senate Commerce Committee that House Bill 633 should move forward with the original language because it would create a Housing Investment Trust and independent revolving loan fund to pool private and philanthropic capital for starter homes.
“My proposal stabilizes growth and workforce,” D’Alfano told the panel, describing a multi-tiered structure that would include a charitable “Housing Investment Trust” and subsidiary series trusts to isolate liability for individual properties. He described an independent revolving loan fund to borrow in capital markets and a governance model with appointed trustees and oversight, and said he would hold a board seat to guide early implementation.
Representative Gary Daniels, prime sponsor of HB 633, said the bill is intended as a private-sector tool to leverage new financing for rehabbing starter homes and workforce housing without relying on state tax dollars. Daniels and D’Alfano asked the committee to restore the original statutory definition for the trust and add a concurrent study committee so legal and consumer-protection details can be resolved while work to organize the trust proceeds.
Senators asked detailed questions about fiduciary protections, the role of New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority and NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire, and whether the Judicial Committee’s amendment reflected concerns about household protections. D’Alfano said the trust would use an operating agreement (citing 2 93 b subsidiary-trust structure in his testimony) and proposed Department of Justice sign-off on key amendments.
Senator Murphy and others urged caution and referenced the House amendment that converted the measure to a study committee. Supporters said they would accept a hybrid approach: restoring the original statutory language while creating a legislative study body to address legal and consumer-safety detail before implementation.
