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Housing Call: May 20, 2025

Organizational Updates & Reminders

THANK YOU to all those that participated in person and virtually in the Bringing it Home 2025 Ending Homelessness in NC conference last week. Please don’t forget to fill out the survey you received in your emails!

Registration for our Fall Conference is opening soon. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the 2025 NC Affordable Housing Conference, this year September 30-October 1, at the Raleigh Convention Center.  We are excited once again to join the NC Housing Finance Agency and Centrant Community Capital to host this event. We look forward to a broad range of breakout sessions for all affordable housing professionals including tax credits, development best practices, homeownership, housing counseling, and more. Click here for more information.

TOP ITEMS FOR TODAY’S CALL

  • NCGA State Budget Updates – House Version released on May 19, 2025.
    • House Committee Report of the FY25-27 Budget here.
    • Full text SB257 – House Version of the FY 25-27 Budget here.
  • Separate Disaster Relief Proposal anticipated from NCGA
  • Latest proposal for Hurricane Helene Recovery Relief released by Governor Stein on May 19, 2025

Calls to Action THIS WEEK – May 20-May 21, 2025

  • Restore WHLP Funding to $35M

The Workforce Housing Loan Program (WHLP) is administered by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA) in combination with federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs). The program launched in 2014, and has brought over 2,700 affordable and accessible housing across North Carolina for our seniors, families, and workforce.

Despite the growing need for housing, the Senate’s version of the FY 25-27 budget does not include any funding for WHLP. The House version proposes only $5 Million for one year of the two year biennium, a drastic cut that could cost communities across the state hundreds of units.

Without the WHLP, many developments would not be possible, especially in rural areas. As construction and development costs continue to rise, cuts to this program could shutter much needed investments into the construction and preservation of affordable homes across the State. The program is structured so that tier-one counties are eligible for up to $3 Million in funding. Several of the counties in the 2025 Qualified Allocation Plan are in Eastern North Carolina, but several are also on the list of disaster-impacted counties from Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina such as: Alexander, Graham,  McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford, and Wilkes.

To see the full list of counties in each tier, click here to visit the 2025 Final QAP, see page 8 for County Award limits. Please reach out to members of the House Appropriations Committee and urge them to protect and restore the WHLP to $35 Million.

 

Federal Updates

The full budget request from the Trump Administration is expected to be released in early June. Appropriators will need to enact a new budget by October 1, which marks the beginning of FY26. The “skinny” budget that was released earlier this month on May 2, and contains historic and dangerous cuts to various Housing and Community Development programs. It includes cutting HUD rental assistance programs by 43% and combining five different rental assistance programs into one State Rental Assistance Block Grant, with a two-year time limit on receiving assistance.

The final FY25 spending bill for HUD programs already underfunded various HUD programs such as the HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, and is expected to result in the loss of over 32,000 vouchers through turnover. This means that not only does the FY26 budget need to include the cost of renewing existing vouchers, but it needs to also fill the gap left by the FY25 spending bill.

To learn more about these cuts and how to take action against them, click here.  Our partners at the NLIHC created a toolkit for EHV Funding Cliff, click here.

Our Partners at NLIHC are joining advocacy networks across the country in a National Day of Action – “Fight Back to Protect HUD” Housing is a Right, not a Luxury, No HUD Cuts! Click here to sign up. 

Budget Reconciliation Process – Dangers for Housing

Last week – House Republicans introduced key provisions of a massage reconciliation bill, their goal is to finalize and pass the bill through the House before members adjourn for Memorial Day recess. This special legislative process called “budget reconciliation” is most frequently used when the same party controls both houses of Congress and the White House. In the past, Congress has passed bills like the 2010 Affordable Care Act, 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and 2022 Inflation Reduction Act through the budget reconciliation process.

The reconciliation bill includes:

  • Spending $5 Trillion to extend tax cuts
  • Increase funding for immigration enforcement
  • Cutting $1.5 trillion in the federal budget through funding cuts to other programs (including housing).

Tax-Related provisions of this bill were released on May 12 – and do include elements from the “Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act” (AHCIA) which the NC Housing Coalition supports.

  • The reconciliation bill would provide a 12.5% allocation increase for three years
  • Lower the bond-financing threshold from 50% to 25%
  • Designate rural and tribal areas as “Difficult to Develop” Areas so they may be eligible for a basis boost. 

While these elements of the reconciliation bill are positive, there are several other proposed cuts and elements of the reconciliation that would be detrimental to communities like changes to SNAP, Medicaid, and more.

 

State & Local Updates 

NCGA

Last week the House released their budget in committees – yesterday afternoon on May 20, 2025 they released their full budget. Click here for the full text. The table below compares both the House & Senate versions of the budget with the Governor’s proposed budget, and the budget from the previous biennium.

House Members have been meeting since 8:30 this morning, kicking off with the House Finance Committee.

  • At 10:00am – the House Committee on Appropriations is meeting click here to see the agenda and streaming details.

We will continue to follow these discussions and also be in the building today and tomorrow to emphasize the importance of investing and protecting one of our state’s most critical resources in housing development.

Disaster Recovery

Governor Stein released a proposal yesterday for additional Hurricane Helene Recovery relief. A separate Hurricane Helene Relief Bill will be released in addition to the money allocated in this proposed budget. Highlights from this proposal include:

  • $113 Million – Safe Places to Live (Page 9)
    • $10M for Rental Assistance
    • $10M for Mortgage Assistance
    • $10M for Homelessness Prevention
    • $1.5M for Disaster Legal Services
    • $20M for Nonprofit Grants for home repair, reconstruction, and other response efforts.
    • $50M to incentivize Affordable Housing Development initiatives.
  • $260M – Stronger Economy
  • $239M – Strengthened Infrastructure
  • $105M – Farmers and Forests
  • $23M – Families and Children
  • $152M – Disaster Response and Recovery

The Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations will be meeting THIS THURSDAY May 22, 2025 at 8:30AM. Click here to see details. 

 

Reports, Resources, and Events

Older Adults Experience Disparate Outcomes When Relocating | Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University

 

 

Recommended read

Housing Call: May 13, 2025

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