WakeUP Urges Raleigh Voters to Vote “Yes” on the Affordable Housing Bond this Fall

Raleigh is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis that is significantly impacting renters, communities of color, and those with extremely low incomes. While fully addressing this problem will require continued long-term investment and planning, the $80 million Affordable Housing Bond on the ballot this fall is a major step in the right direction.

WakeUP Wake County endorses the ballot referendum because we believe this bond is the best tool available at this time for helping residents secure and maintain safe, quality, affordable housing in Raleigh.

How Serious is the Problem?

Raleigh’s housing crisis is urgent and growing.

According to the City’s 2021-2025 Consolidated Plan, 33 percent of households are either moderately or severely burdened by housing costs. Moreover, over the last five years, there’s been a 20% increase in the number of extremely low-income households who pay more than 50% of their income each month on rent or mortgage.¹

Conventional programs to help those most in need, such as housing vouchers and public housing, offer limited help because of extreme backlogs and waiting lists. Nearly 13,000 households are on the waiting list for public housing, Section 8, or both.² As a result, many families have been forced into homelessness or substandard, dangerous living conditions. Over 56,000 households are living in homes with at least one major housing problem, such as lack of complete plumbing, and close to 5,000 households are living in moderately or severely overcrowded homes.¹ At the same time, thousands are living in hotels and motels.

Raleigh’s housing crisis has been particularly problematic for the city’s most vulnerable populations, such as people of color. Although African Americans represent just 29% of Raleigh’s overall population, they account for nearly 40% of all households with major housing problems.¹

Of course, all of these issues have been exacerbated in the last year by COVID-19; stories of evictions, including one recently about residents in East Raleigh forced out of duplexes along New Bern Avenue, only underscore the need for immediate action.

Left unchecked, Raleigh’s housing problems will only get worse due to continued population growth. Raleigh is presently the third fastest growing metropolitan area in the country, and net migration — people moving here — accounts for the majority of that growth. By some estimates, Raleigh’s metro area will reach 2.2 million residents over the next 20 years, an increase of 80% compared to its current population of 1.21 million.

WakeUP Urges Raleigh Residents to Vote “Yes”

Of course, Raleigh’s housing challenges are not new, and City leaders have proposed solutions in the past. Last year, when the previous City Council discussed the possibility of putting an Affordable Housing Bond on the Spring 2020 ballot, we shared with City leaders our priorities for maximizing the chances of a successful referendum. At the time, we expressed our support for strategies like eliminating exclusionary land-use policies, planning around transit, implementing new programs to better protect vulnerable residents, creating new public-private partnerships, and prioritizing targeted engagement with directly impacted and traditionally marginalized communities. Ultimately, we did not support the proposed bond due to concerns about inadequate community engagement and the lack of a specific plan for how bond money would eventually be spent.

Although much has changed over the last year, we remain firmly committed to the idea that Raleigh needs a well-funded housing plan that is, above all, comprehensive and forward-thinking.

We support the $80 million Affordable Housing Bond because, although it is not perfect, it includes a good suite of programs that, once funded, will yield important benefits for a broad segment of the city’s population, as detailed below.

How the Bond Will Help

Bond Elements ("Buckets")	Percent Allocation	Amount
Transit-Oriented Site Acquisition	20%	$16 million
Public-Private Partnerships	35%	$28 million
Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Gap Financing	30%	$24 million
Owner-Occupied Home Rehabilitation	7.5%	$6 million
Down Payment Assistance	7.5%	$6 million

The City of Raleigh projects that, all totaled, money raised through the bond will fund an additional 1,766 affordable homes over the next five years. This includes 432 units through site acquisition and future tax credit development; 62 units through preservation of naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH); 50 units through public-private partnerships that create permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals; 277 units through other public-private partnerships; 685 units through expanded gap financing; 200 units down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers; and 60 units through expanded owner-occupied rehabilitation.

Of the five funding “buckets,” Public-Private Partnerships and LIHTC Gap Financing will benefit extremely low-income households the most.

Out of the $28 million allocated to supporting new Public-Private Partnerships, $10 Million will go to permanent supportive housing for very low income, chronically homeless individuals, and an additional $10 Million will go to non-profit partners for creating or preserving small scale projects where at least one-third of total units serve 30% AMI or lower.

Even more important is LIHTC gap financing, which, according to City staff, is the most cost effective means of creating affordable units for extremely-low income households. Units affordable to those at 30% AMI generally do not generate sufficient rental income to cover a building’s operating expenses.

The $24 million allocated to LIHTC gap financing will help expand support for mixed-income projects including units affordable to extremely low income families, those earning earning 30% AMI and below. Extremely low income families will be the required beneficiaries of twenty-five percent of units in 9% tax credit projects and ten percent of units in 4% tax credit projects.

Raleigh’s Housing Bond is a Good Start, But There is Still Work to do

We applaud City leaders, City staff, and members of the Affordable Housing Bond Advisory Committee for their hard work ensuring Raleigh’s Affordable Housing Bond benefits as many residents as possible, particularly now during this unprecedented time in our nation’s history.

Much work will remain after November, however, and we would be remiss if we did not point out that the process by which the Affordable Housing Bond was developed was far from perfect. Although COVID-19 understandably complicated community engagement efforts, we were disappointed by the lack of diverse community input from the early stages of the bond process. We were also disappointed by the absence of publicly available information, until recently, on how bond-funded programs will support families with the greatest housing needs.

Inadequate community outreach undermines public trust in government, and now more than ever it is vital that City leaders build meaningful and lasting relationships with communities that have legitimate historical reasons to distrust local officials. Moreover, the challenges our community faces today — from housing affordability, to racial injustice, to climate change — are too important and enormous to think any single group can devise solutions without inclusion and broad community input.

Ultimately, the present Affordable Housing Bond is a good start to a comprehensive solution that can no longer be delayed. At the same time, we recognize the Affordable Housing Bond is merely that — a start. We can neither build nor subsidize our way out of our current housing problems. So, in the months and years ahead, City leaders will need to build on the important work started this year. With that in mind, we challenge Raleigh’s leaders, past November, to continue reaching out to, and listening to, residents living in impacted areas so the City can devise workable solutions to the numerous housing challenges that will not be addressed by this bond.

We stand ready to help in whatever way we can. In fact, on Thursday, October 22nd, we’re hosting a virtual information session on the current state of housing in Raleigh and the potential impact of the Affordable Housing Bond. The event will feature a short presentation from Yvette Holmes, Co-Chair of the Citizens Supporting Raleigh Bond Campaign, followed by a panel discussion with representatives from organizations working directly with residents impacted by the housing crisis. To learn more about this free event, and to register, CLICK HERE.

Housing affordability is a community-wide issue that requires a community-wide response, and we look forward to continuing to do our part to help make Raleigh — and all of Wake County — a fairer, more equitable, more affordable place to live.

References:

¹City of Raleigh 2021-2025 Consolidated Plan

²Affordable Housing Bond Follow-up Report to City Council, September 1, 2020