Should the city be helping residents make a down payment on a home, hoarding land along transit corridors or chasing after low-income tax credits to combat the city’s growing affordable housing crisis?
As the Raleigh Council starts digging into the fine print of a proposed housing bond for the November ballot, their biggest task may be setting priorities for how to spend the money should it pass.
Although Durham passed a $95 million affordable housing bond last year, Raleigh is aiming a bit lower—likely between $50 and $75 million, which will necessitate a tax hike of between $15 and $24 dollars for city property owners.
In a presentation Tuesday, Housing Director Larry Jarvis shared what a bond package might look like, based on priorities set by the previous council last June. Here’s the breakdown:
The city could also consider tax relief programs, although Jarvis noted such programs were ineffective in Durham and Charlotte, as they were unable to generate enough participants.
After reviewing the presentation, council member Nicole Stewart questioned what the city should be prioritizing for the bond.
“We have a goal of creating more affordable housing and seeing housing as almost a right and then we have programs that develop housing, that help build wealth among residents and I think those two goals are inherently contradictory,” Stewart said. “Should we be in the business of creating homes and doing downpayment assistance if that is for wealth building when I don’t think those programs can be done, legally, in a way to address the wealth equity we are trying to address.”
Council member Jonathan Melton disagreed, saying down payment assistance can help uplift families.
“I don’t necessarily see those two initiatives to be at odds. I think they have the same end goal but maybe how we prioritize them is different,” Melton said. “For us, priority-one needs to be getting as many folks into some form of housing but I don’t think we need to be steering away from down payment assistance.”
The Council hopes to finish outlining the bond package by May 19. To streamline the process, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin instructed staff to begin the process of convening a group for community feedback.
“Normally we’d go through a nomination process, but that would take weeks and we don’t have weeks,” Baldwin said.
Contact Raleigh news editor Leigh Tauss at [email protected]
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