Proposal Might Ease Affordable Housing Crunch

Nonprofit organizations will use the fund to buy existing houses and sell them at an affordable price to low-income families.

By Jennifer Johnson

Staff Writer

Nonprofit organizations are encouraged that local officials have passed a Community Land Trust proposal meant to maintain the price tag and availability of affordable housing, despite a virtual moratorium recently passed on new development.

The Chapel Hill Town Council last week approved the $150,000 trust, which will allow nonprofit community development organizations, such as emPOWERment, Inc., to buy existing houses and sell them to low-income families with almost no cost to the organizations. The proposal targets residents who earn below the average income in Chapel Hill.

The decision to fund affordable housing came shortly after council members passed a resolution that effectively halted development until September so officials can finalize a development ordinance.

Robert Downing, director of the Orange Community Housing Corporation and Land Trust, said the money will give nonprofit organizations the edge they need to protect affordable housing.

The housing corporation is a nonprofit affordable housing group. "I think it's a wonderful tool for nonprofit organizations," he said. "It's $150,000 that can be used and reused so houses that are affordable stay affordable."

According to the Orange County Economic Development Commission, in 2001 an average home in Chapel Hill cost $219,050. Downing said the average Chapel Hill family cannot afford the high cost of housing in the town.

Downing said the fund will probably mean little to local developers because the nonprofit organizations will be purchasing existing houses in neighborhoods such as Northside, which generally attracts student renters.

"Students as a whole can afford more than the average working family," Downing said.

Although town officials recognize the need for more rental property for students, Town Council member Flicka Bateman said students drive up prices in neighborhoods and that some areas need to be kept affordable for low-income families.

The nonprofit organizations have already begun searching for affordable houses in Northside and Pine Knoll to buy so the loan can be utilized as soon as possible.

Mark Chilton, executive director of emPOWERment, said he is pleased with the fund but said developers' concerns about the effect the decision to halt development would have on affordable housing were unfounded.

"We'll probably buy a few houses this year."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.