Housing Call: December 6, 2022 – North Carolina Housing Coalition

Congress is on a short timeline to make a deal to fund the government or pass a continuing resolution before the current stopgap funding measure is set to run out on Dec. 16. Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) floated a topline number for the spending bill early last week to his counterpart, top GOP appropriator Sen. Richard Shelby. Sen. Shelby responded with a counteroffer on topline funding levels for the year-end omnibus spending bill. Shelby said the deal could total around $1.7 trillion.
124 bipartisan US lawmakers have pledged support for the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act (NHIA), which would offer a tax incentive to developers to minimize their risk when building or rehabilitating existing housing. Lawmakers have stressed the urgency to pass the bill before the end of the current legislative session. The legislation, which has been introduced in both the House and the Senate, could lead to the development of 500,000 starter homes in struggling communities over the next decade in addition to $29.3 billion in federal, state and local tax revenues and fees, $42.9 billion in wages and salaries, and over 780,000 jobs in construction and construction-related industries.

The Policy Agenda Committee concluded their last meeting last Friday December 2, 2022. Using feedback from a range of experts, the feedback gathered from community stakeholders via the survey we released a few weeks ago, they prioritized the policy agenda and several strategies that we will be publishing in the coming weeks. A big thank you to those that participated on the committee and those that took the time to complete the surveys released to inform the direction of our agenda this upcoming year.

Next week on December 14, 2022 the joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, Subcommittee on Hurricane Response & Recovery on December 14, 2022 at 10:00am, we will tell you how it goes.
The Town of Cary is partnering with a developer to build affordable housing on town-owned land. The plan is to build a 126-unit mixed income apartment community. 64 will be affordable according to the following breakdown:
- 25 units for residents who make 80% of the AMI
- 26 units for residents who make 50% of the AMI
- 13 units for residents who make 30% of the AMI

The apartments will be powered completely by rooftop solar panels and are situated along a future bus rapid transit route between Cary and Raleigh.

Construction began on a new affordable housing community in Concord. The Lincoln Street Townhomes will have 26 affordable units designed to increase homeownership in the area. The project is funded in part through the American Rescue Plan Act and officials say it will be one of the most significant homeownership efforts in the historic Logan Community.
In Charlotte, the West Side Community Land Trust broke ground on a $31 million project that will bring 120 senior affordable apartments to the West Boulevard corridor. The one- and two-bedroom apartments on West Boulevard will rent between $474 and $1,516, for seniors 55 and older with incomes between 30% and 80% of the area median income.
150 households in Wilmington were displaced from their homes and living in hotels last year due to mold issues in Wilmington Housing Authority properties. The Wilmington Housing Authority has been remediating the mold and is projecting that all 150 families who were displaced will be back in their apartments by spring of 2023.
At their meeting last week, the Charlotte City Council voted to spend $20 million to help 8 affordable housing projects keep rent affordable. Together, the projects will provide more than 600 new housing units. To fund the projects, the City is allocating the remaining balance of the city’s Housing Trust Fund as well as some American Rescue Plan Act funding.