New Hanover County has a growing gap in housing — annually, it increases by nearly 3,000 units. And more than half of renters are housing cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. Fair market rental rates have jumped almost 20% since last year, according to WHAC Chair Shamonique Brantley.
"If you are renting, and your rent goes from [...] $1,200 a month, and increases $300 plus a month, that is huge. And that's something that's just insurmountable for most of these of these residents," she said.
Brantley pointed out an example of a person who recently called the county housing line for support. It was a teacher who moved to Wilmington to take a job, but who doesn’t make enough to get into an apartment.
Commissioner Rob Zapple questioned why a new teacher wouldn’t be able to get a rental, and suggested it might be an issue with that person's credit score.
Brantley replied: "When you go to a rental office, they require that you make two and a half times the amount of the rent. And in this case for two bedrooms, that would be $60,000. And sometimes it's very difficult.”
A first-year teacher in New Hanover County makes $46,000, including the local pay supplement.
The number one recommendation from the WHAC is the creation of a housing fund leveraging local, federal, and private funding sources. That money could be used for everything from land acquisition to gap financing and pre-development costs.
The committee asked local governments to encourage mixed-income projects as well as a mix of housing types. And Brantley mentioned a focus on legislative priorities, like ongoing funding for a statewide housing fund, and local or statewide initiatives that would protect renters from source-of-income discrimination. That would mean landlords can’t discriminate against housing choice vouchers or anything similar.
Commissioners said they are planning a joint meeting with Wilmington City Council in February that will focus on homelessness.
The full list of recommendations is as follows:
1: Funding.
- Develop a housing fund by leveraging local, federal, and private sources so diverse initiatives, such as land acquisition and donation, rolling gap financing, and pre-development costs, can be supported.
2: Policies and Legislation
- Include NC Housing Coalition's 2024 legislative agenda as part of the City and County legislative work, focusing on efforts to restore and increase the state housing fund.
- Reduce costs for affordable housing in the development review process.
- Encourage mixed-income projects and require 'source of income' protection for projects using public funds (which would prevent discrimination against tenants using housing or veteran vouchers, etc.)
- Include housing affordability and reducing development costs as a focus of County and City planning initiatives.
3: Diversity of Housing Supply
- Fund, support, and expand programs to preserve the existing housing supply.
- Develop tools and strategies to better support the production of mixed-type and mixed-income projects.
- Hold a joint County-City elected board roundtable discussion with both Planning Boards and the development community to coordinate on strategies to remove barriers to including housing diversity and affordability in residential projects.
- Encourage the construction of and simplify the process for developing accessory dwelling units (ADUs)
4: Focus on Residents when Investing in Programs
- Continue funding successful programs and projects to support residents with local dollars, such as the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funded workforce gap rental assistance program
- Identify and implement innovative measures to make existing housing more affordable.
5: Improve Collection of Data and Communication of Existing Programs
- Continue expansion of housing counseling and financial literacy programs
- Bolster efforts to track data and expand the next Housing Needs Assessment update to include statistically significant qualitative study.
- Develop a shared housing data web platform to serve as a resource for the public.
- Improve communication between this committee and the elected boards.
[Disclosure: Zapple is a member of WHQR’s board of directors, which has no say in editorial newsroom decisions.]
