Housing Call: January 21, 2025 – North Carolina Housing Coalition

Organizational Update

The 2025 County Profiles are now live! Our County Profiles are designed to be an accessible tool for people to both learn and communicate about the housing need in their communities, to a wide variety of audiences. Visit our website to see all 100 County Profiles as well as our 2025 State Profile.

Highlights from our 2025 County Profiles blog:

This year, we added two new features based on feedback from our Coalition:

A chart that compares each county’s homeowner and renter cost burdens alongside the statewide homeowner and renter cost burdens.
Counties impacted by Hurricane Helene are noted. The data in disaster-designated counties does not fully represent post-storm housing conditions and the housing need in these counties is likely greater now.

Housing Wage
In 2025, the lowest Housing Wage in the state is $17.88 an hour, 2.5x the minimum wage. The Housing wage is the hourly wage you need to earn a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent. With the lowest housing wage being $17.88, this means no one earning minimum wage, working full time, at only 1 job, can afford a 1 or 2 bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent.

In 12 counties, the Housing Wage is over $30, meaning people have to make over $30 an hour to afford a 2 bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent. There are 58 total NC counties where the housing wage is over $20 an hour, including those 12.

Housing wages across the state are up to 5x higher than the minimum wage. Our data confirms that the cost of living in North Carolina continues to increase.

Evictions
There were almost 200,000 evictions filed in North Carolina this year, and a little over 11,400 foreclosures.

When looking at the rate of eviction filings compared to the total number of renter households, the following counties are in the top 3, meaning they have a high ratio of renter households in their communities that faced eviction.

Edgecombe County
Nash County
Mecklenburg County
Our data sources include:

Federal Updates

Turner tackles HUD program reforms at confirmation hearing for housing secretary Last week, Scott Turner’s HUD Secretary confirmation hearing provided a glimpse of his housing agenda and priorities. He dodged a lot of questions asked by Democrats regarding the Section 8 Housing Choice voucher program and funding for housing and homelessness programs. Turner signaled support in the hearing for harmful housing policies like tying work requirements to HUD assistance and refused to commit to protecting Federal homelessness and housing programs from significant spending cuts. In a statement made after the hearing, NLIHC Interim President Renee Willis said she anticipates many of the “counterproductive policies pursued during the first Trump administration will be proposed again.”
Recent HUD Funding Awards

State & Local Updates

Beloved Asheville builds affordable housing village for Helene victims in Swannanoa

Nonprofit BeLoved Asheville recently purchased 9 acres outside the flood zone in Swannanoa, a community heavily impacted by Helene’s flooding in WNC. The purchase was made possible by community contributions. BeLoved plans to build at least 15 homes on the property for households earning between 15-50% of the Area Median Income. They hope to have the homes built by the end of the year.

MECA Commercial facilitates the sale of Shelton Knoll Apartments in Charlotte, NC | Mecklenburg Times

The City of Charlotte’s Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Subsidy RFP program recently assisted with the acquisition of Shelton Knoll Apartments. The City’s NOAH RFP helps provide financing to developers who agree to preserve existing rental housing that is otherwise at risk of being converted into market-rate units. Late last fall, City Council unanimously approved a $1.1M Housing Trust Fund allocation to the buyer, Ascent Homes. In return, the buyer agreed to a 20-year deed restriction that ensures that the 45 units remain affordable for households earning between 30-80% of the Area Median Income.

The Outer Banks Voice – Dare County Board to attempt to acquire controversial Wanchese cluster-home property

The Dare County Board of Commissioners is in conversation with a developer about purchasing his 10-acre property in Wanchese so they can stop a cluster-home development from being built. Back in 2018, the County passed a cluster home development ordinance that allowed for more than 1 single family home on a lot in particular areas of the county, with the idea being that this type of housing would promote affordability through smaller lot sizes and shared open space. The County approved the permit for the development in 2023 out of legal obligation to do so, despite resident pushback. In response to vocal residents upset with the cluster development, they later removed the ordinance in 22 of the 36 areas they had originally zoned for cluster housing, but acknowledged it was too late to do anything about the Wanchese development. Now that the developer has begun clearing land for the Wanchese cluster development, Commissioners are considering buying the property (they previously offered up to $3M, which the developer declined) to appease residents who do not want cluster homes. If the developer does not agree to the sale, commissioners have said they will consider using condemnation to acquire the property.

Event

[webinar] States as Laboratories: Early Lessons from Pro-Housing Designation Programs | Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, January 22 at 1 p.m.
[webinar] Housing as a Pathway to Justice: Introducing Our National Toolkit | Enterprise Community Partners, January 29, 1 – 2:15 p.m.
[networking] Charlotte Area Planning Group Meet-Up I American Planning Association – NC Chapter, January 30 at Primal Brewing in Belmont, 6:00 – 8:00pm
The Disaster Legal Services Free Legal Clinic returns to the Henderson County Disaster Recovery Center (2111 Asheville Highway, Hendersonville, NC) on Saturday, February 1 to help individuals navigate disaster-related legal issues. Volunteer attorneys from the NC Bar Association Disaster Legal Services and Pisgah Legal Services will be on hand to assist with issues and questions, including FEMA claims and appeals, and landlord/tenant matters. Appointments are available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Walk-ins welcome or schedule an appointment here.
[webinar] Manufactured for the Future: Building a Climate-Resilient Manufactured Housing Stock | Urban Institute, February 4, 2025 2:00 – 4:30 p.m. Register here
Registration Open: National Low Income Housing Policy Forum March 24-27, 2025 in Washington, D.C.