At the close of the Wake Forest Planning Board’s meeting Tuesday night, Chip Russell, the director of community development, spoke briefly about two plans to provide some affordable housing in town.
In the first project, the town would enter a development agreement with a local developer who has options on nine undeveloped lots along the unpaved section of Brewer Circle, which connects to Carroll Street off Wait Avenue and to North Allen Road.
In this agreement the town will contribute money to pave the street in exchange for the developer building affordable owner-occupied single-family houses. The street has been on the town’s short list of unpaved streets.
The goal is to have the houses priced between $180,000 and $230,000. Russell said the houses should be affordable for households making 80 percent to 120 percent of Wake County’s median household income of $73,577.
In the second project, the town will sell a 0.76 tract on Caddell Street to a local developer who will build at least four affordable houses, meaning they should also be affordable for households making 80 to 120 percent of the county’s median household income of $73,577.
One of the provisions in the agreement will allow qualifying town employees to have the first opportunity to purchase a house.
The town has a goal of providing affordable housing for town employees and others. Among the tasks for the town board’s strategic plan is one to “Foster public/private partnerships in an effort to encourage affordable/workforce house.” The associated note says it will work with developers “to identify possible areas for housing and any resulting public infrastructure needs.”
Also along Caddell Street, Habitat for Humanity of Wake County purchased six building lots from the town after the town rebuilt the street connecting Spring Street with Pearce Avenue. The lots are still empty, but Rick Beech with Habitat said in January that Habitat is possibly planning to build all six houses from July 2019 to June 2020.
“We do not have homebuyers for these homes and we would greatly appreciate you encouraging families that may be interested in applying to go to our website to get more information and then complete the online preapplication.”
The form to apply is https://www.habitatwake.org/apply and the online pre-application is http://www.tfaforms.com/4693145. You can also contact Tamesia Wright for more information at tamesia.wright@habitatwake.org.
Habitat houses range from $100,000 to $110,000 in price but future homeowners provide “sweat equity,” labor by the families, to offset the cost.
One Response
It is refreshing to know our Town staff is thinking “outside the box” and coming up with creative strategies to encourage affordable housing for deserving families! Thank you, Chip Russell and colleagues… and thanks for the support of our Town Manager and Commissioners.