Why we need the NC Housing Trust Fund

Housing Trust Funds often don’t get the respect they deserve. It’s easy for someone to take them for granted, especially if one isn’t looking for housing or emergency shelter. However, affordable housing is something that improves the lives of so many people all over North Carolina. We need to more closely examine what families really need to have healthy, safe, and affordable housing. It’s especially important to do so during this time of economic recession and discussions of drastic budget cuts.

In North Carolina, legislators are in the midst of deciding how or if the Housing Trust Fund should be funded. Now’s the perfect time to take action and help them understand what a fully funded Housing Trust Fund could do for our state. I’ve heard several questions about the Housing Trust Fund, I think the answers make a clear case for why we need it to be fully funded.

Who benefits from the NC Housing Trust Fund?

The NC Housing Trust Fund provides funding for a wide range of projects and services throughout the state. All of the money allocated to the NC Housing Trust Fund goes into bricks and mortar for the projects, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency absorbs all of the administrative costs.

The NC Housing Trust Fund provides the vital funding that so many programs need, such as: domestic violence shelters, affordable apartments for seniors, group homes for developmentally disabled youths, and transitional housing programs for the homeless. Not to mention transitional housing programs for veterans, or housing for children in foster care.

To sum up, the elderly, youth, women and children, veterans, and persons with disabilities all benefit from housing programs funded by the NC Housing Trust fund. It makes a strong impact in every community.

Why is a housing trust fund important for our state?

Right now, North Carolina has a shortage of 328,000 rental homes and apartments with incomes below 50% (and 30%) of local median income.

544,000 families in North Carolina pay more than they can afford for their rent, a 13% increase from 2000.

12,160 North Carolinians are homeless.

The Trust Fund has created 14,500 jobs

In North Carolina, the Housing Trust Fund is the only state appropriated funding source for providing permanent housing for homeless families, the elderly, or persons with disabilities. It allows seniors or persons with disabilities to continue living in their own homes through rehab and modification.

The Trust Fund needs a substantial, recurring appropriation in order to maintain its progress and continue helping families in need.

Why should we fund the NC Housing Trust Fund now?

The funding for the North Carolina’s Housing Trust fund has been volatile since its creation in 1987. It’s ranged anywhere from $20 million to $0.

This fluctuation in funding has made it difficult for affordable housing developers to have dependable funding sources. It often takes several years to plan a housing development. Local governments become hesitant to commit their municipalities’ limited resources when the Housing Trust Fund fluctuates so widely from year to year. That’s why we should take advantage of the opportunity legislators in NC have to create a dedicated revenue source in North Carolina. This would provide a way for communities to have a reliable source of funding they can count on every year.

Also, the Housing Trust Fund Study Commission, which recommended the creation of the Housing Trust Fund back in 1987, has favored creating or finding a dedicated revenue source for the Trust Fund especially one that is related to the real estate industry.

Who supports a Housing Trust Fund?

There is a broad coalition of organization that support the Housing Trust Fund. Click here to see a full list.

How can I help create a Trust Fund in North Carolina?

Call or email your state Senator today and urge him or her to support SB 462 and the NC Housing Trust Fund. You can find your legislator here. Here’s a link to a factsheet about the Housing Trust fund for some talking points. Together, we can make a great difference for families in North Carolina!

Veterans and Affordable Housing

An often misunderstood, under-served and vulnerable population are our veterans. Recently, Chris, Carley, and Sonia met with Jeff Smith who leads the Veterans Leadership Council of NC-Cares (VLCNC-Cares). He shared some shocking statistics with us - one out of every three veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress syndrome and an average of 18 veterans a day commit suicide. VLCNC-Cares is one of the few organizations working to connect homeless veterans to the services they need including finding safe and affordable housing. One way we can help them in their mission is to demand ample funding for the Housing Trust Fund which helps create housing for those who have sacrificed for our country.

Please take some time each week to let legislators know you care about these issues and what they mean for folks back home in their districts.

NC Housing Landscape

In February, the Center for Housing Policy (CHP) published the Housing Landscape 2011. CHP found that nationally, housing affordability worsened significantly between 2008 and 2009 for working households. Working households are defined as those with incomes no higher than 120 percent of the median income in their area. In the United States, 10.5 million working households had a severe housing cost burden in 2009, which is an increase of almost 600,000 since 2008. A severe housing cost burden means the household is spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs.

According to CHP, North Carolina is one of the 25 states that had a significant increase in the share of working households with severe housing cost burden. Twenty percent of working households in North Carolina have a severe housing cost burden. North Carolinians who spend so much on their housing costs often have little left over for other essentials such as food, medical costs, transportation, and child care.

To view national and state statistics from the Center for Housing Policy's Housing Landscape 2011 click here.

Out of Reach

On Monday, Out of Reach 2011 was jointly released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based housing policy organization, and the North Carolina Housing Coalition. The report provides the Housing Wage and other housing affordability data for every state, metropolitan area, combined non metropolitan area, and county in the country.

The 2011 Housing Wage for North Carolina is $13.81. The Housing Wage is the hourly wage a family must earn – working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year – to be able to afford the rent and utilities for a safe and home in the private housing market. North Carolina’s Housing Wage has increased 30% since 2000.

Data from Out of Reach supports what we know about North Carolina: low income families are still struggling to find decent and affordable housing in communities across the state. While we work to rebuild our economy after the recession, we cannot forget the low and moderate income families across the state whose basic housing needs continue to be unmet.

Working at the minimum wage in North Carolina, a family must have 2 wage earners working full-time – or one full-time earner working 76 hours per week, 52 weeks per year – to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

The typical renter in North Carolina earns $11.52 per hour, which is $2.29 less than the hourly wage needed to afford a modest unit.

An estimated 50% of renters in North Carolina do not earn enough to afford a two-bedroom unit at the Fair Market Rent. This is the highest level in the history of this report which dates back nearly 20 years.

For more information and to view the report click here.