A great night for affordable housing!
Funding allocations and new policies that will create real change in our community
Under the heading of taking time to celebrate the successes, I am excited to share some big wins from last week’s Town Council meeting. It was a special evening, especially because of the incredible public comment from affordable housing advocates and folks in our community with lived experience of housing insecurity. Deep gratitude to the speakers who came out and stayed late into the evening to share your stories, your frustrations, and your pain with us.
Summaries are below, with links if you are interested in more details. Also, a shoutout to Town staff who did terrific work on all of these efforts.
Town Awards Largest Single-Year Contribution to Support Affordable Housing: Wednesday night, Chapel Hill Town Council approved a nearly $9.2 million funding plan that will support almost 300 new affordable homes through five affordable housing development projects. These projects will provide homeownership and rental opportunities for households with a range of incomes, including extremely low-income households. The new affordable housing units will increase the Town’s supply of permanently affordable housing by more than 25%. The funding plan also provides rental subsidies for some of the hardest-to-serve households through a local master leasing program.
You can read the full story here.
Council Approves Six-Month Affordable Housing Development Review Process: Wednesday night, Chapel Hill Town Council approved changes to the Town’s Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO) that shortens the development review process for projects that include at least 25% affordable housing. The changes reduce the timeline from 12-18 months to less than six months. The new policy will make it easier for developers to capitalize on funding assistance and incentivize the creation of more affordable housing in town… The Town’s Planning and Affordable Housing & Community Connections departments drafted the text amendment in response to a 2021 Council petition. The petition asked staff to create an expedited application process for developments with a significant affordable housing component. It also asked staff to implement strategies to rapidly promote increased production and availability of affordable and missing middle housing. Read the full story here.