After hearing a presentation about the town’s possible tools and strategies to enact its emerging Affordable Housing Plan during their work session on Feb. 1, the commissioners and mayor decided to follow Town Manager Kip Padgett’s suggestion and discuss the plan at length.
You want to get it right, Padgett told them, and asked them to be thinking of their questions while he sets up some discussion sessions. This week Padgett said the sessions will be mostly one commissioner at a time meeting with a staff member or consultant.
Consultants HR&A Advisors had prepared the possible ways in which the town could help homeowners maintain their homes, provide affordable rental housing and build or partner in building more affordable housing. Christiana Whitcomb, a director at HR&A, led the town board through the possibilities that could address the problems of rapid growth in town leading to a rapid increase in the cost of housing on all levels which exacerbates the existing racial inequities.
The study so far has shown that low and very low-income people find it difficult if not impossible to find affordable homes, meaning many who make less than $20,000 a year end up paying half or more of their income in rent. This particularly impacts single parents and elderly renters.
Also, homeownership is decreasing especially for young first-time home buyers and older homeowners who want to stay in their homes as they grow old. Many of those older home owners find they cannot afford all the costs of a home.
The Town of Wake Forest has become aware of that last problem and now is allocating $50,000 annually to help with renovations and repairs of those homes as part of its Northeast Area Community Plan. Rebuilding Together of the Triangle is in charge of the program, which can spend up to $15,000 for each project.
The goals of the current plan are to:
*Preserve and expand access to homeownership
*Create high quality affordable rental housing
*Provide incentives to diverse housing
* Retain existing residents who want to stay in Wake Forest and prevent displacement
So how does the town make those goals a reality? For that first goal, the town could provide down payment assistance to first-time homeowners. Wake County already has a down
payment assistance, and the two together would help a great many young would-be homeowers.
There is also something called voluntary inclusionary zoning where builders can include affordable housing in a market-rate subdivision.
The town could either purchase or subsidize the purchase by a community land trust to provide land for affordable housing.
The town could also have an accessory dwelling unit demonstration program, showing how small dwellings can be put behind or attached to existing single-family houses.
To create more affordable rental housing, the town could either make town-owned land available, work with the Wake County Housing Authority to either redevelop or rehabilitate the three public housing tracts in town. The two older tracts – one on East Chestnut and one on North White – could be redeveloped at a higher density. The one on North Allen Road is already dense but is aging and needs rehabilitation.
Finally the town could provide gap funding to help make a low income rental housing project possible.
All of these possibilities were further explained, and the first of the affordable rental housing tactic showed two possibilities on land the town currently owns. There is one on Brooks Street near town hall which could have 36 rental apartments with 57 parking spaces and 6,300 square feet of new retail on the first floor. Alternately, there could be 18 larger apartments. (It was originally a laundromat with a dry cleaning shop and now houses the town’s building maintenance office.) The second town lot is on the recently-reconfigured Caddell Street where an overgrown lot could hold six or seven townhouses with parking.
Now that Wake County has a housing department aside from the housing authority, the Town of Wake Forest is advised to coordinate with the county to reach a larger number of housing resources.
Also – and this is an important part of the plan – the town needs to have a broad program of public information so that potential homeowners and renters are aware of all the local, county, state and federal help and programs available to them.
Whitcomb ended the presentation with a quick review of the programs to implement the housing plan.
Mayor Vivian Jones said she was not comfortable with all of the strategies and implementations.
Commissioner Chad Sary said it was a lot to digest. “How do we get these things done? How do you see the most effective way to get things done?
Whitcomb recommended having a housing person dedicated to just that with an advisory committee, not a whole department.
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