Housing Call: April 15, 2025 – North Carolina Housing Coalition

Organizational Updates & Reminders

Thank you! To all those that participated in NC Housing Day 2025 and related events last week! Here are some of the highlights from last week:

156 people registered
117 people attended
111 meetings were scheduled
49 of 100 counties were represented, in addition to a number of folks representing statewide groups.

FEEDBACK FOR NC HOUSING DAY 2025 – BY APRIL 2025

For those that registered and/or attended – please fill out this feedback survey here!

Help inform collaboration and the development of resources on Health & Housing by April 17, 2025

The NC Housing Coalition Policy & Advocacy team has been hosting a student Joy Bowling from ECU, who is pursuing her Masters in Science with a focus on Health Systems Leadership. Her interest in the intersection of health and housing led her to us, and she’s developed a survey focused on understanding the awareness and collaboration levels between the two sectors, with the goal of recommending how to better bridge housing and health best practices and policies together.

Please take a moment to fill out her survey (5 minutes maximum) which will allow us to have data not only for Joy’s final capstone, but also will allow the NC Housing Coalition to have better information about how we need to develop these types of intersectional materials.

The link can be found by clicking here. Fill this out by April 17th!

Federal Policy & Advocacy Updates

From March 31 – HUD scrubs website; removes 90% of content, cites poor user experience & cost savings. We’re working to try to understand what information has been taken offline and work to ensure we continue to have access to the datasets and resources we rely on to do our work.

House Adopts Senate-Passed Budget Resolution

On Thursday, the House adopted the Senate’s budget resolution (216-214). The resolution outlines $1.5 Trillion in spending cuts.

Skinny budget expected

The White House FY26 proposed budget request is expected in mid-May. We’re expecting to see an outline of the budget, known as a “skinny budget,” sometime this month.

The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA) was reintroduced last week with 117 bipartisan cosponsors, representing over 30 states and over a quarter of the House of Representatives. The legislation would finance 1.6 million more affordable rental homes in the next decade than otherwise possible.

Here are some helpful resources as we resume pushing for the strengthening of this important tool

State & Local Updates

Disaster Recovery

The Governor’s Advisory Committee on Western North Carolina Recovery met yesterday, April 14, 2025 – and they discussed the following:

Blue Ridge Parkway Restoration – The National Park Service hopes to have the stretch from Great Smoky Mtn National Park to Mt. Mitchell re-opened in the Fall.
Small Business Recovery – $1.8B economic loss from lost revenue & operations from October-December 2024.
Wildfire Mitigation – Tree debris will continue to increase wildfire risk for the next 10-15 years.

Additional news:

FEMA ruling to end 100% Helene cost-share, as state braces for tariff impacts / NC will appeal

The state is appealing FEMA’s ruling to end the 100% cost-share for Hurricane Helene recovery. If the ruling stands, all categories would return to a 90% cost share.

NC General Assembly

The bill filing deadline in the House was at the end of last week. Over 1500 bills have been filed since the long session began in January. To see which bills we are tracking check out our bill tracker for the 2025-2026 legislative session, click here.

If you’re familiar with our 2025-2026 policy agenda we will be releasing a summary in the coming weeks looking at what bills have been filed, acted on, passed that relate to our priorities and our analysis on their potential impacts.

NCHC Weekly NCGA Watch List:

FY25-27 Budget, Housing & Development Bills, and Homelessness

We are currently waiting on the full Senate Version of the budget to be released – https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2025/Bills/Senate/PDF/S257v1.pdf

https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/S257

Governor Josh Stein released his budget proposal for 2025-2027 several weeks ago on March 19, 2025.

NC GOP senators map out pay raises, tax cuts in new budget plan

The House Standing Committee on Housing & Development is meeting on Wednesday April 16, 2025 at 3:00pm to discuss the following bills

H306: Affordable Housing for Local Employees
H797: Residential Property Wholesaling Protection
H768: Clarify Radio Coverage Exemptions/Bldg Code.
H765: Local Government Development Regulations Omnibus
H627: Regulation of Accessory Dwelling Units
H444: Homeowners Association Reform Bill

Last week we highlighted two bills that would negatively impact those experiencing homelessness and are an example of the legislative trends happening nationally that criminalize or disproportionately impact those experiencing homelessness: H781: Unauthorized Public Camping & Sleeping and H437: Establish Drug-Free Homeless Service Zones; H437 is being heard this morning when the House convenes at 11 a.m.

Additional NCGA Highlights

Events

Bringing it Home Conference May 15-16, The McKimmon Center in Raleigh. In-person ($125) & virtual ($65) available.
CAHEC Conference Tuesday, June 3 – Wednesday, June 4 at the Raleigh Convention Center. Registration is free, the deadline is May 19.
Faith in Housing Nonprofit Community Mixer | City of Charlotte’s Faith in Housing Initiative, May 8, 3-5 p.m. @ The Ruth by Beau Monde.Register here.