Ben Schachtman: Ok, Kelly, so the recent housing breakfast covered a lot of ground, including a legislative update, and a look at how housing trust funds can work in other cities, namely Charlotte and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Kell Kenoyer: Right, and it was kind of: good news, bad news.
BS: Let’s start with the bad news, which came from Sam Gunter’s legislative briefing – he’s the executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, and also a Baptist minister, so the man can work a room. This year, he kicked things off by reminding a lot of people in the room that subsidized housing can mean a lot of different things.
Samuel Gunter: “How many of you own your home? Keep your hand up if you claim the mortgage deduction on your taxes. Congratulations. You live in subsidized housing.”
BS: You and I have seen him speak at the last few breakfasts, And one of his recurring points is that state and federal policy impact housing costs in a lot of different ways, from the mortgage interest tax deduction he mentioned here – to section 8 and other programs.
KK: This year, he covered a lot of the policy shifts from the Trump administration, focusing on the freezing of federal funds — and the sweeping executive order on DEI. He pointed out that in some cases, entire housing programs have been targeted for cancellation. Gunter also said he’s seen cases where someone in the Trump administration cancelled a housing grant simply because they did a search and found the word “diversity” on a program website.
BS: Gunter was pretty clear, because these policies are vague and hard to interpret – they’ve caused chaos. There are several lawsuits currently ongoing to try and protect some of the housing programs – but the situation right now for housing advocates is tough.
Gunter: “If you're a service provider, this is a particularly scary time because you are likely not carrying a lot of operating reserves, and you are having to do the math, like so many of our members, of how many payrolls do I have, of them holding up money that we are appropriated, and under contract for work that has already happened, right?”
BS: During Gunter’s update you could feel some tension in the room – usually he’s not political, because housing is a bipartisan issue where working across the aisle is necessary to get stuff done. But he said, look, there’s no way to give you a legislative update without telling you the Trump administration’s actions are an 'existential threat' … to over a billion dollars in housing funding in North Carolina alone.
KK: But I think it’s worth pointing out: affordable housing remains bipartisan. Gunter said one of those threatened programs, the Community Development Financial Institution fund, was saved by behind the scenes work by Republican Senator Michael Crapo.
BS: All this uncertainty is certainly giving housing providers ulcers, though, and might lead to delays or cancellations of housing projects. But the rest of the program covered some ways local institutions can help insulate providers from federal chaos.
KK: That’s right! They talked about housing trust funds in Charlotte and Pittsburgh. This has been an aim of the region’s housing advocates for many, many years. Since the start of the housing coalition, at least.
BS: These are funds that help with gap financing to make affordable projects financially viable. In both those cities, the trust funds are taxpayer funded and provide millions of dollars in financing a year.
KK: I think it’s worth noting that the housing coalition got Terri Burhans, the housing network officer for the New Hanover Community Endowment, to lead the conversation with the two speakers they brought in.
BS: Seems like maybe a not-so-subtle hint to me about who housing advocates think should be funding a housing trust.
KK: Well, Terri certainly seemed interested in the conversation. We’ll see if the board at the Endowment agrees. Thanks for covering this breakfast, Ben, while I was driving to Knoxville!
BS: No problem!
