ROUNDUP: Pappas Fights for Granite State Homeowners, Housing Affordability While Sununu Cozies Up To Private Equity

MANCHESTER, N.H. — As New Hampshire home prices soar to new highs, Congressman Chris Pappas is running for U.S. Senate to lower costs and make housing more affordable. In Congress, Pappas is fighting for legislation to combat the housing crisis in New Hampshire by expanding affordable housing, increasing housing supply, and helping first-time homebuyers get ahead. 

Pappas is traveling across New Hampshire to discuss housing — a top concern for Granite Staters. In Dover, he visited the Cottages at Back River Road to discuss cutting-edge approaches to affordable housing helping to keep Granite Staters in their communities. 

In Contoocook, he met with homeowners at The Meadows Community to discuss the impact of out-of-state corporations buying up Granite State communities. Pappas is fighting to pass a law that would put homeowners before private equity profit by incentivizing manufactured home park owners to sell parks to community residents or nonprofits, rather than another developer or landlord. 

While Pappas fights for Granite Staters, his likely Republican opponent John Sununu is busy cashing in. As American Journal News reports, Sununu’s campaign accepted $72,000 from private equity executives who “may be responsible for New Hampshire’s housing affordability crisis.”

Read highlights from Pappas’s visits and more on Sununu’s ties to private equity below:

In Dover, Pappas visited the Cottages at Back River Road to discuss housing affordability with residents and Maggie and John Randolph of GSD Communities.

“If you can’t find a place to rent that’s affordable or a job that’s going to meet your needs and provide for your family, you’re going to go somewhere else,” said Congressman Chris Pappas. “Rents are too high. Home prices are too high. We’ve got to build more and build in a smart way. The Dover Cottages are just a shining example of how to do that.”

“Housing is one of the things that can attract people to New Hampshire. People that are here graduating UNH, or graduating high schools, if they don’t have that opportunity, they’re going to pursue other places. The housing piece is overwhelming,” said John Randolph of GSD Communities. “Dover was on the forefront and now Keene is starting to do something similar and other places. I think that’s kind of opening up the missing middle.”

Concord Monitor: ‘Predatory in nature’: AG investigating consumer protection concerns at Hopkinton manufactured housing park

By Charlotte Matherly, 6/17/26

  • […]
  • Congressman Chris Pappas visited Lightfoot’s home on Thursday to hear from residents about their concerns. Hopkinton is not in his district, but Pappas is running for U.S. Senate this year.
  • “What they’re doing here is just predatory in nature,” Pappas said. “There’s no reason that this should be permitted.”
  • Pappas and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen are working on federal legislation to incentivize sales to park residents over other landlords by allowing a 75% tax credit when a manufactured housing community is sold to a resident-owned cooperative. People should be “in control of their own destiny,” he said, and residents like Lightfoot and Ryerson should have the first opportunity to buy the land where they live.
  • “We need to be working hand-in-glove, from the federal and state level, to make progress, to address the housing crisis that we’re seeing,” Pappas said, “including addressing the corporate private equity influence that we’re seeing in housing that’s making it less affordable and is causing a lot of consternation here at this park.”
  • Legislation like that could have made a difference at the Meadows, where residents tried to band together and form a resident-owned cooperative to buy the park. Their offer was turned down, they said.
  • […]

American Journal News: Sununu’s campaign fueled by private equity cash

6/17/26

  • Former Sen. John Sununu’s comeback campaign took in $72,000 from private equity executives who may be responsible for New Hampshire’s housing affordability crisis.
  • A recent analysis of the state’s housing market found a pattern of high costs and limited supply, particularly among rentals and mobile homes, which have been a major focus of private equity investment in recent years.
  • Private equity firms have bought up these properties and then made huge profits by driving up rents beyond market rates. Firms that engage in this practice are often referred to as commercial landlords.
  • Sununu’s campaign reported $48,000 in contributions this year from executives at Blackstone, the largest commercial landlord in the country. The campaign took in another $24,000 from Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan and his wife.
  • In New Hampshire, at least 16 mobile home parks containing about 3,713 homes are owned by private equity investors. Residents at a park in Northwood say their rent has increased by nearly 60% since a commercial landlord took over ownership in 2021.
  • Blackstone owns three properties in New Hampshire: a housing complex in Nashua, a cluster of apartments in Durham, and a student housing facility in Lebanon. Multiple Yelp reviews claim the Durham properties have rodent infestations and unresponsive management.
  • If Sununu is elected to the Senate, he will likely vote on the future of private equity ownership of housing. Earlier this year, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill that would crack down on the practice. The House passed a similar bill, but differences between the two pieces of legislation are still being debated, signaling that more votes may come in the future.
  • Sununu previously served in the Senate from 2003 to 2009. He then went to work for Akin Gump, a D.C.-based lobbying firm that counted both Blackstone and Apollo Global Management as clients.
  • In 2014, Sununu joined the board of TAP Advisors, an investment banking firm that also advised Blackstone.
  • Sununu will face former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in a Sept. 8 Republican primary. […]

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