New River Housing

Good Morning,

"Welcome to the Food Distribution Programs website! Our mission is to strengthen the nutrition safety net through commodity distribution and other nutrition assistance to low-income families, emergency feeding programs, Indian Reservations, and the elderly. "

Good Morning,

One of my goals is the creation of a strategic housing plan for NRBH. It has been a slow going process, mostly information gathering & plugging in pieces here and there. Anyway, getting involved is something I try to do. Surfing around I found this picture at the city of Kingston Model For Affordable Housing Development website. I like this site becuase it offers some clear directions.

Over the past week several topics related to affordable housing in Watauga County were addressed. First was the Watauga Democrat report on questions of how to develop workforce housing in an area of "secondary water pressure"; Second was a joint meeting of the Watauga County Housing Opportunity Committe, Watauga County Planning Commission, and the Town of Boone Planning Commission.

The focus of all this is affordable housing in the 80-120% AMI level--workforce housing. This is particularly important as pressures from the "second" home/resort market and student housing market squeeze the un-subsidized middle class out of the homeownership market altogether.

The newspaper recounts a presentation to the Boone Town Council related to locating a new development at the edge of town. Its cetainly not that the town leaders don't want new workforce housing--they are all for this. The issue is water! I suspect that water will cap local economic growth more than any government. Nature does have limits.

A brief from the Fannie Mae Foundation outlines some of the concerns and some directions for policymakers: Workforce Housing: The New Economic Imperative? By Carol A. Bell (2002).

Another concern for local planners is economic--it has long been recognized that Watagua County residents earn, across the board, less than the state average for all occupations & that the cost of living in Watauga County is higher than the state average. This point was made by County Planner Joe Furman.

The joint planning meeting introduced a proposal by the county to build workforce housing on a piece of land acquired for industrial park expansion. This is the Brookshire property & subject of ongoing conversation by county planners.

The Brookshire property is described in the Mountain Times as:

"The county paid $2.6 million to buy 73 acres near Boone, adjoining the South Fork of the New River. The county later paid $45,000 for an adjoining two acres. The commissioners have explored a mix of industrial facilities, recreational fields, and affordable housing, and heard from county planning director Joe Furman and three groups hoping to use some of the space during last week’s annual board retreat."

While there were a number of students and community members in attendance, most of the issues were noted by members of the NWCoC. Many others reacted as if they were facing the issue initially--which they may have been. As with all projects, "wait & see" & "stay involved" is my motto.

There was little mention of environmental issues beyond a question of proximity to the New River. It seems to me that part of making the units affordable over the long-term is to enhance them with energy effiency and "green" building concepts. It also seems that density is important. I also proposed that affordability could be enhanced by encouraging builders of high-end resort housing to contribute to the affordability of housing for those who provide services to visitors.

That proposal generated some discussion. Some members wanted to talk about "inculsionary zoning". Defined by Heller in his Field Guide to Inclusionary Zoning as

"Inclusionary zoning is a land-use concept in which local ordinances require builders to include a certain amount of housing for low- and moderate-income households. In contrast, exclusionary zoning is a technique that effectively drives up the cost of housing, excluding lower-income households from the community.

Although I was referring more to the concept of credits--emissions trading.

Emissions trading relies on caps set by a regulatory body that are then bought and sold on a free market. This seems similar to the concept of rationing water based on expected use per person per type of building--the exact issue mentioned above that the Town of Boone is struggling with. Except that a finite limit is recognized at the outset.

In this case, every developable lot in the county is allowed say $500,000 of enhancement--that's probably not the right word. If a builder wants to erect a $750,000 structure they must offset with credits from somewhere else in the county. So, they end up building two structures: one at $230,000--median housing cost in the county right now, and one at $770,000.

An exchange could be set up where builders could sell & purchase credits to meet the needs of homeowners & contractors. Fees could support the exchange & maybe even support NWCoC efforts.

I don't know, its an idea to explore some more.
rmcox

Labels: affordable housing, strategic plan, workforce housing

Good Morning,

Today I am excited because an article about the Family Solutions SHP came out in the Watauga Democrat. Unfortunately, only the print edition--so no linking directly to the article. However, here is some information about Family Solutions from an earlier article: 29 Sep 2006.

HUD Releases GENERAL SECTION for 2007 SuperNOFA competition.

It should be noted that the Homeless Competition is again a paper submission; although all other programs require electronic submission--visit Grants.gov to learn about registering to submit federal grant applications. This link will take you to the HUD funds available page.

rmcox

Labels: addiction treatment, affordable housing, Family Solutions

Good Morning,

In preparing for last night's Town of Wilkesboro comprehensive planning meeting I looked up the Out of Reach report for 2006. This data shows that Wilkes County is not in as bad a condition as other places in terms of rental costs & in terms of rentor income. It was pointed out to me that Lowes Hardware is again considering a move out of Wilkesboro--it's hometown. Such a move would severely change the income demographics for the town.

This statement is backed up by a topic raised by one resident--more upscale residential rental properties are needed. Further, as Watauga County fails to meet the affordable housing needs of service workers and young professionals, demand for housing and services is rising to catch those "falling off the mountain".

In answering the question of looking out over the next 20 years for development a couple of people kept talking about attractiveness (ie, trees, curbing, decorative street lighting) of the town. Now, I certainly enjoy accessorized streets--they really add to the pleasure of a place & make it look alive--but how does this translate into a 20 year vision?

The group I was in was mostly retired age citizens--I was by far the youngest there. Other breakout groups had younger people: high school students. It will be interesting to see the final document.

CORRECTION
I made a correction to my post about the Homeless Count. It now points to the actual report, and not a summary. Data is collected from the annual Point in Time homeless count undertaken by Continua of Care.

NEW LINK ADDED
I added a link to the Federal Register in the link list. You can see the day's schedule or search back to 1998. Pretty handy for keeping up with legislative changes.
rmcox

Labels: affordable housing, homelessness, planning

Good Morning,

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson issued a statement yesterday (10 Jan 07) thanking the National Alliance to End Homelessness for "helping to analyze homeless data from hundreds of local communities around the country". He then went on to mention that HUD "will release its First Annual Homeless Assessment Report" "soon".

HUD has been funding programs to address homelessness through the McKinney-Vento Act since 1985. It remains the only Federal legislation on homelessness. The trend has been from creating emergency shelter to transitional shelter with supprtive services to forcing community collaboration (Continuum of Care process) to, now, permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals with less emphasis on services.

A few years ago someone in Washington figured that the internet is a means to providing service providers with reliable linkages to build services networks & to get an accurate count of all the homeless persons in the country. Welcome Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS). I personally think the idea has some merits; however, the system is useless as it stands now.

1st, while all HUD funded providers must participate--except Domestic Violence providers who are statuatorily exempt for confidentiality fears--consumers of homeless services are not required to participate. Immediately, the data is incomplete & inaccurate.

So, any analysis provided by HUD will be no more accurate than the data that peeved Mr Jackson. As a side note: all this is happening because 25 Jan 07 is the date of the annual homeless census, which will reveal numbers as guess-timated as any others.

This count and analysis is important because it will determine the direction HUD and Congress will take over the next five years in funding services. It just won't be any more accurate than what we are reporting and using locally. The best indicator of service need is the Annual Progress Report (APR) and the number of services provided in a given reporting period. If I am providing a certain level of services I can be reaasonably sure that I can predict need over the next 18-24 months--which is the amount of time needed to secure one year's funding.

What I really want is to know if Northwest Continuum of Care was funded in the 2006 competition cycle.

Click here to read the NAEH report.

rmcox