NCLM Southern City Volume 71, Issue 2, 2021

SOUTHERN CITY QUARTER 2 2021 28 Beyond stripping away local authority, it also is highly suspect that more density alone will solve the challenges of creating more affordable housing. In 2019, Oregon became and remains the only state to adopt a similar statewide approach to residential zoning. In 2020, home prices in Portland increased by over 15 percent. Home prices in Raleigh and Charlotte rose by 11 and 13.6 percent, respectively, last year. While homebuilders have attempted to blame local permitting costs on those increases, housing experts note that income and population growth are the primary drivers of housing costs. Put more simply, supply and demand determine prices in housing markets, just as in other goods and services markets. Rising income levels and population levels create more demand for real estate and housing, and that demand increases the closer land and housing is to job sites and urban amenities. Most builders, meanwhile, want in on the more lucrative market of filling the housing needs of wealthier residents. These market pressures occur as housing experts peg housing affordability to 30 percent of a family’s income, regardless of income level. That means someone living in Raleigh will need to make at least $17 an hour to rent an average-cost apartment. Samuel Gunter, one of the state’s foremost experts on affordable housing and executive director of the N.C. Housing Coalition, recently told Spectrum News, “The housing supply does not work for people at the lower end of the income spectrum.” But what can work? The answer is obviously complex, and it is hard to ignore the income and wealth side of the equation. Durham Mayor Steve Schewel, during the debate over that city’s Expanding Housing Choices plan, pointed out that the issue is wrapped up in past discriminatory actions that had disparate effects on housing. “We must be cognizant of the systemic issues that helped perpet- uate the fix we find ourselves in today,” he said. While people are generally aware of the term “red-lining,” many are unaware that federally-backed home loans, going back to the 1940s, were tied to whether a home was outside of a red-lined neighbor- hood. African-Americans often made up the largest segment of residents living in the red-lined neighborhoods. The result was that those homes declined in value, and their owners did not experience the same ability to build wealth through home ownership. As difficult as that past may be, and as difficult as addressing the present need is, cities and towns are not sitting on the sidelines. That includes municipalities of all sizes, not just the big urban areas. While Raleigh, Durham and other larger cities have passed bond referendums and taken a number of other steps to address afford- able housing, other smaller municipalities have worked closely with developers by creating incentives to build housing that is sold or rented at below market rates. In Davidson, a community partnership involving the town, two nonprofits and a developer recently announced the building of several affordable housing units as part of a larger 81-unit townhouse development. Those units will be targeted at families continued from page 27 Affordable Housing