After months of campaigning, candidates for Raleigh City Council have perfected the art of walking into a room of voters, taking hold of a microphone, and launching into a pre-rehearsed speech. But last week, they participated in a very different sort of political event: one where they were mainly expected to sit and listen.
Watts Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in southwestern Raleigh was full to bursting on Thursday evening, with an estimated 1,000 people crammed into the pews and spilling into an adjoining overflow room. The diverse, lively crowd represented more than 25 religious congregations within ONE Wake, a nonpartisan collective of Wake County churches, mosques, synagogues, and nonprofits. At the front of the sanctuary sat nearly every candidate for Raleigh city council, including all five mayoral hopefuls.
ONE Wake had gathered the candidates and congregants to pitch them an ambitious and specific affordable housing plan.
“Wake County needs over 65,000 units of affordable housing,” the Rev. Dr. Donna Coletrane Battle of Southeast Raleigh Table reminded the crowd from the pulpit.
“Longtime residents are being displaced by the cost of housing. … The social fabric of neighborhoods is being destroyed by displacement. … First time home-buyers can’t buy a home and build wealth to pass down to their children. … The lack of affordable housing disproportionately impacts people of color, especially Black residents,” Battle intoned. “It is time, family, for change.”
Murmurs and then roars of applause filled the church, bouncing off the vaulted ceilings.
ONE Wake’s proposal for the Raleigh City Council candidates is as follows: build 1,000 affordable homes and 1,000 affordable apartments in Wake County by increasing local funding for affordable housing from $30 million to $70 million annually; identifying 100 acres of vacant or underutilized land for affordable housing construction; and building those units in partnership with ONE Wake and the Nehemiah Housing Development Finance Corporation, which has build thousands of affordable homes for mostly Black and brown residents in East New York, Chicago, and Baltimore.
Though ONE Wake did not ask the candidates to commit to a funding plan, its leaders suggested putting a $160 million affordable housing bond on the ballot in 2026.
ONE Wake religious leaders explained their proposal and offered testimonials about the great need for affordable housing. Then came the main event: the Rev. Jemonde Taylor of Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church in Southeast Raleigh invited the political candidates to stand at the front of the stage and verbally commit to the plan with a simple “yes” or “no.”
The candidates had been briefed on the plan ahead of time, Taylor explained.
Nearly every candidate committed fully to ONE Wake’s plan, including four of the five candidates for mayor—Janet Cowell, Terrance “Truth” Ruth, Eugene Myrick, and James Shaughnessy IV. Mayoral candidate Paul Fitts said “no” to the spending increase and Nehemiah partnership.
A handful of conservative candidates joined Fitts in rejecting parts of the proposal, mainly on the grounds that they couldn’t commit to increasing government spending without knowing where the money would come from.
Memorable moments from the evening included an announcement from Kara Lynn Sanders—who goes by Momma Kai and calls herself “Raleigh’s most famous unhoused person”—that she is launching a write-in campaign for mayor.
Myrick drew one of the biggest cheers of the night when asked whether he supports building Nehemiah housing in Raleigh.
“I’m originally from East New York, Brooklyn,” Myrick said. “My family still owns a Nehemiah home. We totally revitalized East New York without gentrifying the community.”
Other candidates were not afforded the same chance to explain their positions. Tomara DeCosta, a Republican running in District C, tried to equivocate on her answers and had her microphone yanked away by a church attendant.
Absent from the assembly were candidates Mitchell Silver (District A) and Daniel Grant-King (District C).
Dionne McGee, a member of Watts Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, got the last word Thursday evening. She reminded the audience that these promises from would-be council members mean nothing until they follow through. ONE Wake pledged to hold another assembly in a year’s time to check the city council’s progress, and every candidate present agreed to attend.
“If you are committed to voting, let me see you wave your hand,” McGee called out to the crowd.
Hundreds of hands shot upwards and waved.
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a corps member for Report for America. Reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].
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