Places to Live

The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Listens Invites the Portsmouth Community to Participate in a Places to Live Dialogue

The City of Portsmouth has engaged Portsmouth Listens to facilitate a series of community participation events about Places to Live in the City. This effort is to inform and listen to the community about housing concerns. Events will be held between January and February of 2024 to discuss existing places to live, challenges to accessing them, ways to create more, and the impacts of doing so. 

Participants will discuss our community’s housing needs in depth and develop recommendations for the City to meet those needs in an effective and equitable manner.

The Places to Live series begins with “Housing 101” on Thursday, January 11, 2024. The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Listens invites the public to attend this kick-off event in City Hall starting at 6:30 pm in Council Chambers.

Following this kick-off event, participants will deliberate in small groups called “study circles” with a trained facilitator to understand the issues and develop solutions. These conversations will not be about specific housing types, properties, or demographic groups. Instead, conversations are intended to broaden understanding of the character and variety of existing housing, and the needs and choices of places to live for all current and future members of the Portsmouth community. Insights from these sessions will be presented at a community-wide event to be held in February. 

Your voice as a citizen matters. Portsmouth Listens, along with the City of Portsmouth, wants to hear from you about your experiences and thoughts with housing in Portsmouth. From your participation in public events, surveys, or study circles, you and the City will learn more about challenges and needs with places to live in Portsmouth, how more of those places may be created, and what the community believes it will take to get there.

NOTE THAT STUDY CIRCLE REGISTRATION CLOSED END OF DAY JANUARY 11TH.

Places to Live Dialogue - Study Circle Registration

Kick off / Housing 101 : Video

Study Circle Group Reporting : Video

Places to live Study Circle groups presented their outcomes to a joint listening session of the City Council and the Planning Board on February 22nd.