Housing Call: October 11, 2022 – North Carolina Housing Coalition

Federal Updates

On Friday, the Biden-Harris administration provided an update on progress towards implementing their Housing Supply Action Plan. The announcement included two important updates for housing tax credit developers.
- The update included final and temporary regulations on the average-income set-aside for low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties. The new average income set aside regulation removes the “cliff test” and allows unit redesignations based on a wide range of justifications. This particular test was especially contentious because under the proposed regulations, one unit being out of compliance with the required set aside could threaten the credits of the entire project.

The announcement also included IRS extensions on LIHTC deadlines, which will ensure that affordable housing developments delayed by public health, economic, and supply-chain issues can be built as expeditiously as possible and still qualify for LIHTCs.
If you are interested in reading more, check out our most recent blog post.

State Updates

Last Wednesday, NCHFA released their 2022 Housing Credit Awards. The North Carolina Federal Tax Reform Allocation Committee, based on recommendations from NCHFA, awarded a combination of federal tax credits and tax-exempt bonds, as well as tax-exempt bond awards from January and June 2022 for 51 projects. This funding, combined with other financing, will build almost $1 billion in affordable apartments across 29 counties in NC:
4,429 privately owned and managed affordable apartments
2,518 apartments for families
1,911 for seniors
At least 440 of the apartments will be targeted for people with disabilities.

This brings the total number of Housing Credit apartments in the state to more than 120,800. Check out our blog piece for more details.

One of them was funded in part by NCORRs community development program in Fayetteville, 81 units

https://bizfayetteville.com/residential-real-estate/2022/10/5/mcarthur-park-ii-increases-affordable-housing-and-community-resilience-in-fayetteville/1257
https://www.ncdps.gov/news/press-releases/2022/10/05/mcarthur-park-ii-increases-affordable-housing-and-community-resilience-fayetteville
AARP hosted their Age My My Summit NC in Raleigh last Wednesday, practitioners gathered from across the state to discuss the intersection social determinants of health and the 8 domains of livability. The governor stopped by and spoke about the importance of ensuring NC is a place for people of all ages, and how valuable seniors are for our communities across the state.
Congressman Ted Budd is slightly leading over former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley in some recent polls, but the race remains incredibly close. North Carolina is among a handful of battleground states that will decide control of the Senate in the midterm elections.

Local Communities

The National Rental Home Council’s first local chapter will be in Charlotte. Housing advocates are hopeful that tenants can use this as an opportunity to communicate their concerns about landlords directly. The organization hopes to use the opportunity to engage with local policymakers. Earlier this year, the Mecklenburg County Commissioners approved $500,000 to study the effects of corporate landlords.
Habitat for Humanity of Wake County announced a new CEO last week. Patricia Burch was chosen by the board out of over 150 applicants. She comes to Wake County after serving as the executive director of Habitat for Humanity in Birmingham, AL, where she worked for almost 16 years.
The City of Raleigh recently announced that they plan to convert 25 rooms at the former extended-stay Hospitality Studios off of Capital Blvd into supportive housing units. The City purchased the motel in September 2021 using ARPA dollars and City Council recently approved an additional $2M in ARPA funds for renovations. The City purchased the property for the purpose of preserving naturally occurring affordable housing.
The Asheville-Buncombe Community Land Trust recently announced that they sold their first home to a first-time homebuyer for $125K. In keeping with the land trust model, the organization will retain ownership of the land, which allows them to control the sale price of the house and ensure that it remains affordable for future income-qualified homebuyers. The city dedicated $1M towards the land trust in 2018 in response to displacement and the growing need for affordable housing (the median sale price in Buncombe County is $475K).

Approximately 30 families living at the Econo Lodge in South Charlotte are trying to find housing after the motel was rezoned in August and sold to a developer who plans to build workforce housing apartments. Action NC is organizing a meeting this week to ensure the remaining families are able to secure new housing.
The Southern Comfort Inn extended stay motel in West Charlotte closed in June but the motel plans to re-open as a nonprofit called Freedom Community Outreach. The Southern Comfort Inn general manager and Freedom Community Outreach president,Traci Jones, says renovations are underway on the motel rooms, which will primarily provide transitional housing to veterans, seniors and disabled individuals. The nonprofit also plans to build modular homes on site. Additional funding will be needed to complete renovations by early next year.

CASA expects construction to be complete by January at Perry Place, a 48-unit tax credit property on Merritt Mill Rd., situated on the line between Chapel HIll and Carrboro. The development is the first tax credit property for both the Town of Carrboro and CASA. The development is not yet accepting applications, but Income-qualified people interested in applying may be placed on a waitlist.

Events, Reports & Resources

Events

County Profiles 2022 Updating Process! Make sure to provide your feedback by October 27th at the following link: https://airtable.com/shrwNyne7N2bPG0q1
Presentation slides and a recording of last week’s National Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition webinar can be found here.
[Virtual] Stacked Decks: Building Inspectors And The Reproduction of Urban Inequality, 11/4 @ 12:15, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies
[In-Person] HOPE is hosting an Inclusive Housing Summit 11/10 8am-4pm, The Friday Center in Chapel Hill (registration in full; waitlist only)
[Virtual] Next-Generation Innovations in Housing Affordability, 11/15 @ 1pm, The Urban Institute

Reports