NC Housing Coalition Update

Executive Director's Note

Last week, I attended an amazing event that will really impact how we conduct our advocacy around housing issues locally in NC. PolicyLink, a progressive policy group out of Oakland, CA held their Third Summit on Regional Equity, Social Justice and Smart Growth in New Orleans, with over 1,800 people attending!It was great to be a part of workshops where local groups were talking about a variety of community issues within the context of low to moderate income communities. I really see the model of collaborative partnerships across issues that are inextricably related, such as schools, housing, transportation, jobs, the environment and health as the way forward for our local communities. With collaboration, we have the potential to be much more powerful, and to do a much better job of planning and investing public resources wisely and efficiently. Instead of endlessly requesting more funding to build more schools or housing or roads, we will be working to have local advocates demand an equity analysis on all of these issues so that better and more comprehensive planning and investment can take place.We can’t just spend more on housing and then locate it in places where the land is cheaper or where there is no public transportation. We can’t keep allowing new schools to follow upper income developments with no affordable housing. And we can’t keep expanding our road network with no connection to land use planning. All of these things make our communities less sustainable, more congested, less affordable, less accessible to people with disabilities and more economically segregated, so everyone has a stake in seeing this planning done well! Hopefully, we can frame this message with multiple allies on the local level to bring about better planning with much better equity outcomes in the future.North Carolina Housing NewsNext week begins a busy week of travel for me as I take part in a bunch of great local housing advocacy activity. On Tuesday, I will be meeting with the Charlotte Mixed Income Housing Coalition as they move towards advocating for an Inclusionary Housing program for their city. On Wednesday, I will be in Hendersonville to meet with the Henderson Housing Coalition and help them lay out a vision for their work in the coming year, and Thursday, I will be back south to Concord for the Piedmont Continuum of Care Housing Summit. Finally, on Friday, I will be in Gastonia for the Gaston County Housing Summit!While that is a very unusual week, it is exciting to see so much local housing activity, and we are thrilled to be supporting this work as the statewide housing coalition. This is not the end of local events either. In April, I am already scheduled to speak at a Housing Summit in Chatham County and Fair Housing events in Winston-Salem and Greenville.What this means for us at the NC Housing Coalition is that we need to increase our funding so we can add more staff to do policy and outreach work (along with more research and communications work) across the state. More and more, it becomes evident that if we are going to have the kind of impact we need to have at the state and federal levels of policy-making, we have to have clearer public perception and stronger polling numbers that demonstrate the importance of housing to our local communities. As part of our strategic planning process, the NC Housing Coalition Board of Directors will be looking at how we can increase our capacity in these areas and how this need for greater work on the local level will drive our future fundraising and staffing decisions.Campaign for Housing CarolinaYesterday, a group of allied organizations met with Treasurer Richard Moore to discuss the Campaign for Housing Carolina and the NC Housing Trust Fund. We had representatives from the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, NC Apartment Association, MS Society, ARC of NC, NC Coalition to End Homelessness, the NC Justice Center and the NC American Planning Association, along with Treasurer Moore’s staff. It was a good meeting and it was great to hear Treasurer Moore’s enthusiasm and support for the Trust Fund and its need for a dedicated source of revenue that will get it over $50 million a year. Thanks to him and his staff for fitting us in to his busy campaign schedule.We hope to soon have a meeting with Bill Graham, but are disappointed to report that we won’t be able to meet with Pat McCrory prior to the primary. With that exception, we will have met with every major candidate for Governor about the Housing Trust Fund. The broad hope of these meetings is that they will result in the next Governor supporting housing issues and becoming a real champion of the Housing Trust Fund in particular.This week’s Housing Update includes articles on: NC rising foreclosure rate, an analysis of the foreclosure issue by the Independent, proposed foreclosure reforms at the federal level, homeless shelter overcrowding in Charlotte, as well as homeless issues in Durham and Onslow County and many more. Please note the training today on KnowledgePlex concerning the Violence Against Women Act and Public and Section 8 Housing as well as our Fair Housing Training for Landlords and Property Managers in Charlotte on April 18th and the free tax filing services offered at Legal Aid of NC through VITA sites throughout the state. See the Announcements section for more information on these and other important things.To read the full Housing Update, click here. This will open an Adobe PDF document on our website.
Thanks again for being a member of the NC Housing Coalition,
Chris EstesExecutive Director