NC Housing Update

Each week, NCHC Staff cover the state working on a variety of issues. Here's what we've been up to.

Regina travelled to Concord to support the Time to Build workshop for Housing Counselors held by Prosperity Unlimited. She then headed down to the Davidson Housing Coalition’s Open House. This week, she is attending the National Alliance of HUD Tenants conference in Washington DC with two tenants from eastern NC.

Anne and I travelled to Lexington to attend the opening of the new Homeownership Center. The Center is led by the Lexington CDC, but includes multiple partners so it can serve as a “one stop shop” for resources. It serves everyone with housing needs in Davidson County. From there, we headed to Greensboro to the opening of Churchview Farm, an affordable seniors development built by George Carr and Beacon Management. Congratulations to both groups for making a real difference in those communities. With all of the inevitable NIMBY opposition, it was great to see such good local support at these events.

Last week, Carley and I also spent the day in Charlotte meeting with members of the Mixed Income Housing Coalition about how to add our input to proposed revisions to the city’s locational policy. These guidelines have a big impact on where affordable housing can be built in Charlotte. However, the current policy only affects where assisted multi-family developments can be located. It does not impact the location of Section 8 rentals and fails to consider broader community development strategies for vulnerable communities where tax credit multifamily development can be an effective form of community investment. We are glad that Charlotte has seen that change is needed in the policy and will encourage city leadership to look at the issue more holistically. Please let us know if your community is reviewing its locational policies and if we can help you provide feedback to improve them.

Next week, several staff will be at the opening of Maplewood Apartments in Durham. This is a collaborative effort between Self Help, Durham Community Land Trust, and DHIC of Raleigh. The next day, I will be speaking at the CDC Association’s Sustainability Conference in Charlotte, and the day after I will be at the the Housing Summit in Durham led by the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition. See the Announcements section for more information this opportunities.