Housing Call: April 22, 2025 – North Carolina Housing Coalition

Organizational Updates & Reminders

Reminder about Housing Day Survey

Thank you to everyone who participated in NC Housing Day 2025 and related events on April 8 & 9! Please make sure if you registered and/or attended that you fill out this survey by April 25.

2025 Bringing It Home Conference – Registration Closes May 2

Registration closes on Friday, May 2, 2025 at 5pm for this year’s Bringing It Home: Ending Homelessness in NC conference taking place May 15-16 at the McKimmon Center in Raleigh. Homelessness services providers from across the state will gather to learn, network, and collaborate with industry experts from North Carolina and beyond. This year’s Bringing It Home conference includes a virtual attendance option with select breakout sessions included at a reduced rate. Please note that not all sessions will be available through the virtual conference. Check out the conference website for more details.

NCHFA 2025 Housing NC Awards – Accepting Nominations

Don’t miss the opportunity to showcase your work in affordable housing or to nominate another property for its excellence in affordable housing. The 36th annual Housing North Carolina Awards will celebrate the best affordable housing in the state—housing that improves the lives of residents and their communities.

Nominate any property type (rental, home ownership, supportive housing) for consideration for the 2025 Housing North Carolina Awards. Recognition will be given in the following categories: Innovation in Housing, Excellence in Sustainability, Creative Partnerships and Community Impact. Any property type can be entered for consideration in any of the categories.

Winners will be awarded plaques, and are invited to participate in a special panel at the NC Affordable Housing Conference in Raleigh, NC on September 30. In addition, the winning developments will be announced to the local news media.

Submissions can be made using the online portal. For full guidelines on all of the categories, please see the 2025 Housing North Carolina Awards guidelines. Nominations close May 9 at 5:00 pm.

Federal Policy Updates

AmeriCorps/ NCCC update

Last week, most AmeriCorps staff received a memo from the Interim Director notifying them that they were being placed on leave immediately. This includes all AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) positions. There has not been any communication to-date regarding the VISTA program.

Advocacy Opportunity – AHCIA – The ACTION Campaign is circulating an organizational sign-on letter calling on Members of Congress to support the reintroduced Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act (AHCIA). This legislation would help address the country’s severe shortage of affordable rental housing by expanding, strengthening, and protecting the Housing Credit. The House version was recently reintroduced and an identical Senate bill is expected to be reintroduced soon. The House bill has more than one-quarter of the House of Representatives cosponsoring it! The Campaign hopes to have a strong, bipartisan list of original cosponsors in the Senate as well. ACTION will send this letter to Congress soon after the Senate version is reintroduced.

The ACTION Campaign is working to demonstrate support for the bill from businesses, nonprofits, and public agencies across the country. We encourage you to share the letter with your networks and sign on if your organization isn’t already a member of the ACTION campaign. The deadline for organizations to sign the letter is COB on Friday, May 2.

View the letter
Check to see if your organization is a member (this means they’re already on the letter)
Sign the letter
View ACTION bill materials

Sen. Tillis (R-NC) and colleagues introduce Housing Supply Frameworks Act –

Earlier this month, Sen. Thom Tillis was among the original co-sponsors who introduced the bipartisan “Housing Supply Frameworks Act” (S.1299/H.R.2840), which would help encourage communities to adopt needed zoning and land use reforms such as decreasing parking minimums and increasing density allowances to increase the production of affordable housing. This is a great example of working across the aisle to increase the supply of affordable housing.

State & Local Updates

NC Senate Budget

Last week the Senate released their budget proposal for FY25-27, it was discussed in committee on Tuesday and Wednesday and it passed the Senate chamber on Thursday morning. This week (April 21-25) the House and Senate are on break and will reconvene on Monday April 28, 2025.

We are pleased to see the Housing Trust Fund funding. Despite our efforts to fund the Workforce Housing Loan Program (WHLP), the amendment to fund the program was tabled. We are still early in the budget process though and the House is expected to make considerable changes.

Why does the Workforce Housing Loan Program matter?

The Workforce Housing Loan Program (WHLP) was established in 2014 to replace the State Housing Tax Credit and is used in conjunction with federal tax credits for the construction and preservation of affordable rental units across the state.
The appropriation has been a crucial tool for development and preservation, demonstrating how effectively public funds can be leveraged with private investment for community benefits, particularly in rural areas.
Since its creation, it has supported the development of over 2700 rental units
WHLP ensures that LIHTC (low income housing tax credit) developments reach rural areas where lower rents typically deter typical private investment.

Bills in the News:

NC Bill Tracker Information & Updates

The bill filing deadline has passed. 1771 bills have been filed since the long session began in January (83 of these expliciitly mention housing). 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.

AG Jeff Jackson settles with landlord in RealPage lawsuit – Last week, NC Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced that he has reached a settlement with Cortland Management, North Carolina’s second-largest landlord. Cortland is one of the big landlords he sued in January for illegally working with other landlords and RealPage AI software to raise rents across NC. The company has agreed to stop using RealPage software to illegally set prices for rentals and will pay each state in the lawsuit. Cortland will stop using non-public data from other landlords to set rents, making this one of the first settlements to restrict a major landlord from unlawfully using RealPage.

Events

[webinar] Breaking Barriers to Homeownership: Challenges Faced by Buyers | National Community Reinvestment Coalition, April 22, 2-3:30 p.m. Register here.

[webinar] Engaging the Whole Neighborhood: Innovative Creative Placemaking and Historic Preservation | Center for Community Progress, April 23 at noon. Register here.
[webinar] Unveiling Challenges In Fair Lending: Navigating The 2025 Landscape | National Community Reinvestment Coalition, April 23, 2-3:30 p.m. Register here.
[webinar] Uncharted: Navigating the New Federal Landscape | The Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP), April 24 at 1 p.m. Register here.
[webinar] Meeting the Moment: Empowering and Equipping the Most Vulnerable in a Shifting System | National Community Reinvestment Coalition, April 24, 2-3:30 p.m. Register here.

Housing Resource Fair | NAACP – Lexington Branch, April 26 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Charles England Elementary School (111 Cornelia Street, Lexington, NC 27292).
[webinar] Housing-Focused Street Outreach: Starting with Data to Inform Decision-Making | National Alliance to End Homelessness, April 30 at 3 p.m. Register here.
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. Registration closes April 25.

Bringing it Home Conference | May 15-16, The McKimmon Center in Raleigh. In-person ($125) & virtual ($65) available. Registration closes May 2.
CAHEC Conference | Tuesday, June 3 – Wednesday, June 4 at the Raleigh Convention Center. Registration is free; Registration closes May 19.

Reports & Resources

Reminder that New HUD Income Limits Went into Effect April 1
- This data set is updated annually and includes a chart detailing median family incomes for each county, in addition to county income limits for 30%, 50% and 80% of Area Median Income for households by size (these are used to determine eligibility for Section 8 and other programs). There is also a chart detailing these data points at the state level.
  - The NC Median Family Income increased from $88,600 to $95,000.
  - For a family of 4, the new statewide AMIs are:
    - 30% AMI: $28,500
    - 50% AMI: $47,500 → (for context, starting teacher pay in NC is about $42,700)
    - 80% AMI: $76,000
  - Access the full dataset (and remember to download the data) here