Council Approves Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Strategy

The Chapel Hill Town Council recently unanimously approved an Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Strategy (the Plan). The Plan outlines the key areas of focus for the Town’s affordable housing work over the next five years and the resources needed for implementation.

“Council’s unanimous approval of our Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Strategy represents a bold step forward in the Town’s affordable housing work,” says Sarah Viñas, Director of Affordable Housing and Community Connections. “This is the first comprehensive affordable housing plan and investment strategy in the Town’s history. Implementing the Plan will expand on our long-standing strong commitment to affordable housing. It will also further center racial equity and our new Complete Community Framework in our work going forward.”

The Plan estimates that implementing the recommended activities and funding will support the development of as many as 900 new affordable homes. It will also preserve as many as 400 affordable homes over the next five years.

Learn More about the Affordable Housing Plan

The Plan summarizes key housing challenges facing the Town and affordability gaps. It also includes specific recommendations to complement the Town’s already robust affordable housing program, which fall into four goal areas:

• Decrease barriers to building homes

• Expand and preserve affordable homeownership

• Expand and preserve affordable rental housing

• Increase staffing and funding capacity

The Investment Strategy estimates the Town will need $50 million over the next five years to implement the Plan.

View the approved Affordable Housing Plan here. Staff are now in the process of incorporating the Plan recommendations into their affordable housing workplan and exploring options for implementation of the Investment Strategy.

Annual Affordable Housing Report Released

Check out our latest Affordable Housing Annual Report, highlighting our key progress for Fiscal Year 2023 (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023).

Key Results include:

• $10 million awarded to community partners for affordable housing projects, which will provide support to the development of 300 new units.

• UNC Health committed $5 million to initiate an affordable housing revolving loan fund.

• 163 affordable units received development approval from Council in six market-rate projects, or about 10 percent of approved units.

• The Perry Place affordable housing community is fully occupied, including 24 units in Chapel Hill.

• The Town worked with a consultant team from HR&A Advisors to create an affordable housing plan and investment strategy, which charts a path forward for the Town’s key affordable housing priorities over the next 5 years.

Affordable Housing and Community Connections Releases Annual Report

Fiscal Year 2023 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023) was a big year for Affordable Housing and Community Connections. Together with our partners, our team achieved many key milestones to continue advancing the Town Council’s affordable housing and equitable community engagement goals.  Thank you to all of the residents and community partners who contributed to our shared efforts to build an inclusive community where all residents have access to affordable housing and opportunities to thrive.  There is still so much more work to be done and our team looks forward to working together to continue addressing some of the community’s greatest challenges. 

To learn more about highlights of our work over the last year, see our Annual Report.

Town Secures Historical $5M Contribution from UNC Health to Establish Affordable Housing Revolving Loan Fund

On June 21, the Town Council approved the Eastowne development, a project of UNC Health to expand their existing medical office facilities at the Eastowne campus in Chapel Hill. As a condition of the approval, UNC Health committed to providing $5 Million to the Town to establish an Affordable Housing Revolving Loan Fund.

The Affordable Housing Revolving Loan Fund will be used to preserve and create between 500-1,000 units of affordable housing in Chapel Hill. The Fund will leverage substantial additional resources from other sources and allow the Town to establish a loan fund of $20-40 Million.

"The Town is thrilled to see UNC Health come to the table as a partner to address our community's affordable housing challenge in such a meaningful way," says Sarah Vinas, Director of Affordable Housing and Community Connections. "This is an unprecedented level of investment in affordable housing by an institutional partner that will allow the Town to preserve and build hundreds of units of affordable housing in the community."

Affordable Housing and Community Connections will soon move forward with selecting a Fund administrator and work to secure additional contributions to the Fund.

Chapel Hill Approves Source of Income Protections Policy

On May 24, 2023, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved a Source of Income Protections policy. The policy requires housing developments that receive Town funding or involve the conveyance of Town property to accept all lawful sources of income, including housing choice vouchers.

The new policy is designed to prevent discrimination based on source of income and increase the supply of units that accept income-based housing subsidies. 

Housing choices vouchers and similar housing subsidy programs provide valuable financial assistance for low-income families seeking affordable housing.  However, there are limited opportunities for households with housing subsidies to use their voucher within Orange County, and especially in the Town of Chapel Hill. Despite generous incentive packages and outreach efforts to landlords, typically there are around 100 unleased vouchers at any given time, or about 15% of the County’s available vouchers.

Sarah Viñas, Director of the Town’s Department of Affordable Housing and Community Connections explained that “because North Carolina state law does not include source of income as a protected category in housing discrimination, municipalities are limited in what they can require of landlords.”

Several other North Carolina municipalities have addressed this by adopting narrow policies focused only on housing that receives local resources.

“This policy takes an important step forward in expanding protections for households relying on housing subsidies to live in Chapel Hill,” Viñas said.

The new policy supports the Town Council’s 2023-25 strategic focus area for Affordable Housing and Housing Production that seeks to increase housing access across a range of incomes and housing types and achieve equitable housing outcomes for historically marginalized populations.  The Town will begin implementing the policy immediately.

Chapel Hill Town Council Approves $629,000 CDBG Plan for Affordable Housing and Community Development

Chapel Hill Town Council recently approved the 2023-2024 Annual Action Plan for the use of $629,892 of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding provided through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The Town of Chapel Hill has received CDBG funding from HUD each year since 1975 to be used for affordable housing, community development, and public service projects proposed by local non-profits that benefit low to moderate-income residents in Chapel Hill. Over the last 20 years, Chapel Hill has deployed over $10.5 million in CDBG funding into the community.

This year’s plan includes funding for:

• EMPOWERment Inc.’s acquisition of 2 affordable rentals in Pine Knolls;

• The purchase of a house in Northside neighborhood to be rehabilitated and resold to one of Community Home Trust’s low-to-moderate income homebuyers;

• ·Home repairs for at least 7 low-income homeowners through a partnership with Rebuilding Together of the Triangle and the Orange County Home Preservation Coalition;

• Homeownership counseling and down payment assistance for 8 low-income homebuyers through an expansion of Community Empowerment Fund’s successful first-time homebuyers program;

• Part-time employment for 14 youth through the Town’s Summer Youth Employment Program;

• Transplanting Traditions Community Farm’s Growers School that will provide small business development and training for 13 refugee-owned farms;

• Inter-Faith Council for Social Service’s case management for households experiencing homelessness to access resources and secure permanent housing; and

• Crisis case management for limited English-proficient refugee and immigrant households experiencing housing instability or homelessness provided by Refugee Community Partnership’s multilingual staff.

To learn more about the Town’s CDBG program, visit www.townofchapelhill.org/cdbg or contact Megan Culp, Community Development Program Manager, at mculp@townofchapelhill.org.

Town Council Approves Funding for Tanyard Branch

On April 26, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved the allocation of up to $1,950,000 in affordable housing funding to the Tanyard Branch Trace Project (formerly Jay Street). The Council approved a rezoning for the project in April 2022, which allows for 48 affordable apartments as well as a community building, playground, and an accessible connection to the Tanyard Branch Trail. The Town’s development partners, the Taft-Mills Group and Community Home Trust, are working to secure the remaining funding and permits needed to begin construction, including an application for a 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. The Town funding is contingent on the project receiving a LIHTC award in 2023.

Affordable Housing Plan

In November 2022, Town staff began the process to update the Town's Affordable Housing Plan to set a path forward for the Town's affordable housing efforts into the future.

On Wednesday, April 26th, the Council received an update on our progress towards developing the Affordable Housing Plan and received input from the community and Council on potential strategies.

The Town's selected consultants, HR&A Advisors presented an overview of their work to date and potential policy, program, and investment options that could be included in a Draft Affordable Housing Plan.

Stay tuned for additional updates and opportunities to provide input on the Plan. 

To learn more, see the Council Item.

Town Released Affordable Housing Mid-Year Report

Town staff will present the Fiscal Year 2023 Affordable Housing Mid-Year Report to Council this evening highlighting the Town’s housing needs and progress towards reaching Council’s affordable housing goals. 

Highlights from the Report for the period from July 1 – December 31, 2022 include:

• Trinity Court received a 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit Award from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. The award brings more than $10 million in funding to support the redevelopment of 54 units on the site of the currently vacant Trinity Court public housing community

• Town Council approved an affordable housing funding plan that allocated $9.1 million to support affordable housing projects, the most funding ever allocated for affordable housing projects in Town history.

• Council unanimously approved an expedited review process for affordable housing that reduces the development review timeline for projects with substantial affordable housing components to a maximum of six months.

• Council approved the dedication of 8-9 acres of land on the Town-owned Legion Road parcel for affordable housing development.

• Self-Help oversaw the rehabilitation of three units in the Northside neighborhood.

• The Town released a Request for Proposals for Consulting Services for the creation of an affordable housing plan and is evaluating the responses received. The plan will inform the development of an Affordable Housing Investment Plan that will be incorporated into Council discussions about the Five-Year Budget.

• This quarter, 184 Chapel Hill households received assistance through the County-wide Emergency Housing Assistance Program. This assistance is reflected in the total units preserved.

To help best make progress towards addressing the community’s significant housing needs, the Town is implementing an Affordable Housing Plan that focuses on: funding affordable housing projects, initiating development and preservation of housing, owning and managing housing, and creating and implementing housing policies.  The Affordable Housing Quarterly Report is a tool to monitor the Town's progress in implementing the plan, share the status of projects funded with Town resources, and summarize key community indicators related to housing in Chapel Hill.

Interested in learning more about the Town’s affordable housing efforts? See the Town’s Affordable Housing Quarterly Report and staff’s Annual Report to Council, and www.chapelhillaffordablehousing.org!

Town Launching Update to Affordable Housing Plan

Affordable Housing and Community Connections is working with HR&A Advisors to update the Town's Affordable Housing Plan and Investment Strategy. The 6-month process will connect and build off of the Town's many existing strategies and plans and chart a path forward to resource the Town's affordable housing work into the future. The consultant team will engage Council on a preliminary set of proposed strategies in April with the goal of Council taking action on the plan by June. Preliminary work is currently under way as the affordable housing team is helping HR&A gather data and coordinating stakeholder engagement. Stay tuned for additional updates and opportunities to provide input on the Plan.