Affordable rental housing draft to be introduced Wednesday

After eight long meetings last summer, the affordable rental housing draft will be introduced in the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting Wednesday.

Town Council members Donna Bell and Sally Greene will present the draft to the mayor and other council members.

The draft maps out short-, medium- and long-term goals to increase affordable housing in Chapel Hill. If Town Council members decide to follow through with the goals, they will need to find the money for them.

Bell said there is not a consistent way to receive money, and the Town Council will be dependent on the housing market.

“We want to create a designated fund that can be used for these activities — whether it be created by a certain designation of tax income or whether the money comes from a bond like the one Raleigh passed two years ago,” Bell said.

The affordable housing bond Bell referred to was voted on and passed by Raleigh residents, so a similar vote would have to appear on a Chapel Hill ballot.

But Greene said Chapel Hill’s vote will have to wait until the town’s debt capacity can handle the amount of funding needed.

“If the voters approve the bond referendum, the council decides when to use the money,” Greene said.

“We cannot forecast that right now because if the bond referendum were to pass, we would choose the best possible time to use the money.”

Greene said another way to get money to fund the project would be to dedicate a given income stream from the town’s tax base to all affordable housing, not just affordable rental housing.

Both options for raising money will take time, she said, but she hopes the other council members will support the detailed draft.

“We believe that there is a lot of potential with this draft,” she said. “We are fully on board with this draft and we hope our colleagues will embrace it as well.”

If the other members decide to support the draft, Greene said a new position will be made to focus solely on the project’s goals and problems that might come up.

“We will suggest to the town manager that he pick one fairly senior-level member of his staff to actively work full time on rental housing,” she said. “It takes time and energy to do this work in terms of connecting with people and making sure these goals are met.”

Delores Bailey is the executive director of EmPOWERment Inc., a nonprofit organization that engages communities with affordable housing, and she helped construct the draft. Bailey said she is hopeful for the future of housing in Chapel Hill.

“I think everything depends on how the council receives the draft,” she said.

“We will be ready to dedicate ourselves to achieve what they decide. We have a platform and an audience, so if they accept the proposal I expect great things to happen. We have been waiting years for something like this.”