The two joint committees addressed housing and community cohesion, and were left without a clear future when the county pulled out. With shared board membership, both committees need clarity from City Council to determine their futures, whether that’s being rechartered under the city alone — or being dissolved for good.
The Workforce Housing Advisory Committee, or WHAC, got vocal support from council members.
Mayor Bill Saffo suggested a new charter should better involve the Wilmington Housing Authority, and Councilwoman Sallette Andrews applauded the city’s long-time investments in addressing housing costs. But she also said there's a long way to go.
"The reality is right now, the HUD figures say that a one-bedroom apartment in Wilmington right now the median rent is $1,353," she said. "That requires a full-time hourly wage of $26 an hour, and there are a lot of workers in Wilmington that are not making $26 an hour, that are working full time."
Councilman Kevin Spears suggested the scope of the committee be broadened to cover affordable housing, not just workforce housing.
"The term workforce housing came to life because people considered affordable housing as low-income housing, which it's not. Affordability is affordability for everyone," he said. "It is unfortunate that the county opted out for whatever reason, for whatever financial reasons that don't really exist, that they decided to opt out. But I don't want this governing body to follow that path."
But Councilman Charlie Rivenbark was a bit more critical of the WHAC. He said the committee hasn’t been able to make the difference he’d like to see, nor has the city’s annual $3 million investment.
"It's like we're a dog chasing his tail, we never seem to catch it," Rivenbark said.
The Community Relations Advisory Committee (CRAC), on the other hand, is facing more of a risk of state action because its mission is related to DEI.
Deputy City Manager Mary Vigue explained, "The bill that was vetoed by the by the governor, provides that no state agency or unit of local government can use public money to promote, support, fund, implement or maintain Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives or programs. And so the question would be, is this a DEI program?"
Councilmember Andrews spoke in favor of CRAC by discussing the compass rose on each city employee’s badge. "Our North Star is inclusion," she said. "And I don't think that there's anything that the state or federal government can do to take away our moral North Star of inclusion.”
Spears agreed. "To me, that's just a snippet of what CRAC is doing. I think CRAC is more focused on us being humans and how we get along together in this community, and so again, that's more pivotal work that we need," he said. "I could care less about what the federal government at this moment mandates, or what the state government at this moment mandates, as it relates to how we work to better this community."
Council didn’t take an official vote on the matter, but directed staff to work on bringing both committees entirely under the purview of the city.
