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Housing Call: June 6, 2023

NCHC Organizational Updates

Samuel, Stephanie, and Anna will be at the 2023 CAHEC Partners Conference today and tomorrow. We hope to see some of you there!

Federal Updates

  • FHFA RFI: Renter Protections. The Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking input on ways to increase renter protections in rental homes with federally-backed mortgages. The National Low Income Housing Coalition is circulating an organizational sign-on letter. Public comments are also being accepted on the FHFA website through July 31.
  • The debt ceiling agreement passed and was signed into law the “Fiscal Responsibility Act” which will lift the federal debt ceiling and cap federal spending programs for two years. Key points include:
    • Additional work requirements on SNAP and TANF recipients
    • Reallocates funding previously provided to the IRS
    • Rescinds unobligated COVID19 funds

Despite avoiding a catastrophic default and the dangerous cuts proposed in the original “Limit, Save, and Grow Act” which would have resulted in a 22%-30% to HUD’s affordable housing and homelessness programs, this new agreement still poses a serious threat to these vital programs. Why?

  • Failure to increase appropriations for HUD’s vital affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs would have devastating impacts on those currently served by these programs.
  • Because housing and the cost of living rises every year, flat funding acts as a cut, and reduces the number of people that are able to be served by these essential programs. Due to this, it’s estimated that voucher renewal costs will require an extra $7 billion over FY23 funding just to maintain the number of households that are currently being served by the program.
  • HUD’s budget is under additional strain in FY23 because of lower receipts from the FHA – Federal Housing Administration which are typically reinvested into HUD to help provide additional funds outside of what is allocated during the regular appropriations process, however, this year, the receipts are projected to be $6 billion lower than FY23, so without even taking into account the impacts of the spending caps, HUDs budget is facing a potential shortfall of of $13 billion compared to FY2023. 

What can you do? Continue to take action, here are some tips and data points  to use in your advocacy efforts, from NLIHC.

  • Sign your organization on to the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding’s (CHCDF) annual budget letter.
  • Email your members of congress today and urge them to increase – not cut – resources for affordable housing and homelessness in FY2024 and to support NLIHC’s top appropriations priorities:

Here’s the link to the NLIHC advocacy toolkit “Oppose Dramatic Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing” for additional talking points, sample social media messages and more.

State Updates

  • Opportunities Expand for North Carolinians With Special Housing Needs. The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency approved $8.9M for 11 rehab and construction projects across the state. The 11 projects are all part of the Supportive Housing Development Program, which focuses on creating housing for adults with special housing needs. The program is largely supported by the NC Housing Trust Fund. One of our four key strategies under our 2023 policy agenda is to advocate for a dedicated revenue source for the NC Housing Trust fund.

State Legislative Updates

  • We will be at the General Assembly this week to talk about housing investments in the NC FY23-25, more to come on these meetings and budget talks, as well as the bills that are still live and active that we’re tracking in the coming weeks.
    • Check out our bill trackerhere and our gallery of bills that survived crossover here. Reach out to us if you have any questions.
      • Remember that bills that made crossover are still live AND elements from other bills that did not make crossover still could make it into other bills and ultimately whatever final form of the budget for FY 23-25 that is reached.
      • You can find a full list of the bills that made crossover (not only the ones we are tracking) by clicking
  • Last week’s Housing Matters newsletter included a quick reference one-pager of key housing appropriations in the NC Budget and why they matter. You can find the printer-friendly version
  • The House released their list of conferees this week – we are still waiting on the Senate. Just as a reminder – Conferencing is a process used to reconcile differences between the versions of the budgets passed by the House & Senate in order to get to a concurrent budget agreement.

Local Community Updates

  • Service industry workers petition for affordable housing funding from BCTDA. More than 2,000 people have signed a petition urging the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority to consider using funds to subsidize housing for tourism industry workers in Asheville. Our 2022 County Profiles indicate that the highest housing wage in the NC is in the Asheville metro area, where a family must earn an hourly wage of $28.19 to afford a modest 2 bedroom apartment.
  • Governor Cooper and Mayor Lyles announce the ‘Your Home, Your Internet program’. Inlivian (formerly the Charlotte Housing Authority) recently received a $300K grant from the FCC to pilot an affordable internet connectivity program for families receiving HUD assistance. The pilot will provide eligible households with discounts of up to $30/month on Wifi and a one-time discount of up to $100 towards the purchase of a computer or tablet.
  • Charlotte sees big drop in houses being bought by investors. A recent report from Redfin indicates that Charlotte experienced one of the nation’s largest year-over drops in investor home purchases during the first quarter of 2023. Investors purchased 66% fewer homes in Charlotte in early the first quarter of 2023 than they did one year ago. The article suggests that investor home purchases are trending down due to a number of factors, including high interest rates, low availability of single family homes for sale, and increasing tenant protections. Last fall, Mecklenburg County Commissioners approved $500K to study the impact of corporate landlords on the community.
  • Habitat For Humanity expands affordable housing neighborhood. Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Phase 2 of the Stone Terrace Community. This phase is made possible thanks to the City of Winston-Salem, which contributed $800K in ARPA funds to build the roads necessary to expand the Stone Terrace community.
  • Neighborhoods convince Greensboro City Council to tighten Airbnb ordinance. The City of Greensboro recently passed an ordinance that defines short-term rentals and in their development ordinance, which will pave the way for permitting and regulating the city’s AirBnBs and VRBOs. New regulations will limit the maximum number of occupants, impose minimum distances between STRs, and require that STR hosts reside in Guilford County or a neighboring county. Currently, the city estimates that it has around 600 short-term rentals. The ordinance is expected to go into effect on January 1, 2024 and will be reevaluated after one year.
  • Old motel being transformed into affordable housing in Greensboro. The City of Greensboro is partnering with Stepping Up, a nonprofit based out of California, to transform the old Regency Inn motel and another unidentified motel into 156 units of permanent supportive housing for people transitioning out of homelessness. According to the article, Greensboro is the third city in the NC, along with Raleigh and Asheville, to pursue motel conversions as a strategy to create permanent supportive housing.

Events

Resources/Reports

In the News

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Housing Call: May 30, 2023

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