Kelly Kenoyer: So Ben, you got the chance to attend this community meeting Wednesday in my stead. What did I miss?
BS: So, the format was a little different this time. It’s worth noting that the Endowment now has a public relations firm — Eckel and Vaughan — handling some of this.
In any case, there was much more presentation this time – it was held at GLOW Academy, and one of their students spoke, as did three grant recipients, there was a kind of PR video – all before the listening session, which started about an hour in.
KK: The community had tough questions at the last meeting, back in December of 2023 — they got the chance to speak on microphone. Was that the case here?
BS: Not really. They handed out note paper and pencils and had people write their questions — and let them filter out a few that they felt were inappropriate, ones that were digging into personnel issues, I’m told.
KK: Ok, well, in addition to the listening plan — this meeting was also advertised as a chance for the Endowment to share its affordable housing strategy. What did we learn?
BS: Honestly, nothing we didn’t really know at the beginning of the month. I think the Endowment wanted a chance to reach a broader audience — but, to be clear, they were not announcing any specific grants or projects. It was introduced as a 30,000-foot version — and I think that frustrated more than a few people I spoke to during and after the meeting, because they had hoped to hear about shovels going into the ground, given how badly we need affordable housing units — like, over ten thousand units across the county.
KS: You were also telling me in the newsroom that there seemed to be an effort to kind of redefine what it would mean for the Endowment to address affordable housing?
BS: Yes — Terri Burhans, who called herself the architect and the quarterback of the new strategy, said more than once that “we can’t build our way out of this.”
And, look, I’ve since confirmed with the Endowment that they are still looking to fund projects that will actually build affordable units — although that may be part of mixed-income projects. But, I have to say, in terms of messaging, the lack of details, and what Burhans actually said — it was clearly frustrating for people who watched the meeting.
And you add to that what Vice President Lakesha McDay said, that "our pillars are messy” — and things got more confusing.
KK: What does that mean — our pillars are messy?
BS: So, McDay’s talking about the Endowment’s four pillars — community safety, community development, which includes affordable housing, health equity, and education — these are really broad categories, like you could kind of make a case for almost anything to go in one of those.
As I took it, McDay was making the case that affordable housing is also about education and economic development — she argued that the nursing pipeline grant, which will put over $20 million into public schools, CFCC, and UNCW to help train nurses for our area, was also an affordable housing grant.
KK: I mean, it’s fair to say that, on an individual level, having a better-paying job is going to reduce your housing cost burden. But, one, not everyone is going to be a nurse, and two, when we talk about workforce housing — we’re often talking about nurses.
BS: Right, so being a nurse doesn’t mean you won’t still struggle with housing costs.
KK: It also feels like a flat misunderstanding of the macroeconomic reality of a housing market. If you don’t increase housing supply, but add more well-paying jobs, you get San Francisco.
You need to add more housing supply to reduce average market-rate rents, and potentially build more housing that’s specifically aimed at being affordable to the working class so they can continue to live in this community.
BS: And I think they do want more housing — we just don’t know how, or when. Like I said, this was Endowment’s chance to explain its strategy and I think it fell a bit short — and left people more confused than comforted.
KK: Ok — you mentioned Lakesha McDay, she’s been handling the day-to-day operations after CEO William Buster was pushed out earlier this year. What’s the leadership situation right now?
BS: A lot of audience members were asking that — so, on the one hand, McDay claimed the Endowment has a “flat leadership structure,” and that “everyone's a leader on our team” — frankly, I think that’s misleading. It might be fair to say that everyone has stepped up during a challenging time after Buster left, to keep momentum up, but every expert I’ve talked to said you need a clear leader to run a billion-dollar philanthropic foundation. I think the Board does know that, and Vice Chair Shannow Winslow said they hope to have a new CEO by the end of the summer — but, again, it was bad messaging, overly positive at the expense of clarity.
KK: Alright, last thing, briefly, the Endowment did announce another major grant.
BS: That’s right — $8.7 million over three years for literacy coaches in the school system. William Buster actually oversaw a similar grant in Mississippi that worked out well — it’s an important grant that should do a lot of good — but it does rely on the school system to pick it up and fund it in a few years. And, we’ve certainly seen the school board struggle with funding this year. So, good news, with an asterisk.
KK: Gotcha. Well, thanks for checking it out, Ben.
BS: Thanks, Kelly.
