Latest news with #GregChildress
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NC Senate passes bills to help the child care industry
Child care advocates rallied in Raleigh last summer in support of calls for better state funding. (Photo: Greg Childress) The state Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation meant to help the state's struggling child care industry. House Bill 412 would allow larger class sizes in child care centers if the staff-to-child ratio stays the same. Child care center employees would be able qualify as lead teachers if they have five years of teaching experience as an alternative to a North Carolina Early Childhood Credential. The bill would also set up a workgroup on developing group liability insurance plans for child care providers. 'A lot of child care centers are having trouble finding and keeping insurance,' said Sen. Jim Burgin (R-Harnett). Child care businesses tend to operate on thin profit margins. At the same time, child care is unaffordable for many families. Child care centers face staff shortages that force them to limit enrollment. Wages are low and many workers do not have health insurance through their employers. The median wage for child care workers in the state was $11.69 in 2022, according to a report last year from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. More than 40% of early childhood educator households participated in safety net programs the report said. Legislators are focused on child care this year, with lawmakers considering increases in child care subsidies, and with an active task force Gov. Josh Stein assembled looking at questions of child care financing and funding, child care for the public sector workforce, and child care worker compensation. Wide swaths of the state are considered child care deserts. Rural families are more likely to use home-based child care or have friends and family watch their children, according to the NC Early Childhood Foundation. House Bill 309, which makes it clear that for building-code purposes, home-based child care should be treated as a residence and not commercial building, also passed the Senate unanimously. Both bills go back to the House to see if House members agree with the Senate's changes.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Josh Stein joins panel to discuss, debate housing affordability and supply crisis
Milner Commons is a 156-unit public/private venture on Russ Street in Raleigh is uilt to house seniors 55 and older with modest incomes. (Photo: Greg Childress) High construction costs, labor shortages and supply chain issues all contribute to soaring housing costs and supply shortages, Gov. Josh Stein said Tuesday. But the state's growing popularity as a destination for transplants is also a big part of the problem, Stein said. The governor noted that North Carolina is the third fastest growing state since the last census. The state, he said, added more people than any other except Texas and Florida. 'There are just a lot of people moving here and houses aren't being built fast enough,' Stein said. When people move to North Carolina, Stein said, they need a place to stay and when there is a shortage of available units, newcomers, who often come with higher salaries and larger bank accounts, are willing to pay more for housing. 'And then it means everybody else is left to struggle,' he said. Stein made his remarks during a roundtable discussion in Raleigh with more than a half-dozen housing experts and elected officials. The event was held at Milner Commons, a 156-unit public/private venture on Russ Street in Raleigh that was built to house seniors 55 and older with modest incomes. Tuesday's meeting was an opportunity for Stein to discuss solutions to the housing crisis with housing experts and local officials and to consider legislation and public policy initiatives to speed up the building process to boost the state's housing supply. 'Our state is growing, and people need a safe and affordable place to live,' Stein said. 'We will remain focused on identifying solutions to lower the cost of housing for North Carolinians at every stage of life and work to ensure every person has a safe place to call home.' The housing crisis in North Carolina is real. The state faces a five-year housing inventory gap of 764,478 units (322,360 rental units and 442,118 for-sale units), according to a recent statewide report commissioned by the NC Chamber Foundation, NC REALTORS and the N.C. Homebuilders Association. And across the country, people, particularly those with low incomes, are finding rents increasingly unaffordable. A recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) found a national shortage of 7.1 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renter households – those with incomes at or below the poverty level or 30% of their area median income, whichever is greater. This means that there are just 35 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households nationwide. North Carolina was slightly better off than the nation as a whole, but only slightly. The report revealed that only 41 affordable and available rental homes are available for every 100 of the 332,199 extremely low-income households in the state. Even though Milner Commons is considered an affordable property, Yolanda Winstead, president and CEO of DHIC, the nonprofit that developed the senior community, said the rents are higher than DHIC would like because construction costs grew and interest rates continued to increase during the development process. 'With those things happening in real time as we're trying to get it on the ground, we had to fill the gaps that we experienced,' Winstead said. Raleigh City Councilman Corey Branch said affordable housing developers are facing funding challenges that require government assistance due to higher construction costs and other development obstacles. 'A lot of the costs developers are facing, people don't see,' Branch said. 'So those are the things that we see and continue to put money into … but if you raise property taxes, then you're impacting the people you're trying to help.' Samuel Gunter, executive director of the NC Housing Coalition, said it is critical to focus on increasing the state's housing supply. 'If we're not fixing and making sure that we have enough supply, then all of the other stuff we do to subsidize and stabilize [housing] is just not going to go far,' Gunter said. Scott Farmer, executive director of the NC Housing Finance Agency, said the preservation of existing homes is often overlooked in the struggle to provide safe and affordable housing. One of the agency's most important tools is its Urgent Repair Program, which finances emergency repairs for low-income homeowners who are elderly or have disabilities and whose incomes are below 50% of the area media, Farmer said. 'We're able to go in and do small scale repairs to keep people in their homes,' Farmer said. 'Being able to open $17,000 to keep somebody in their house for an additional five years goes a long way toward saving those [state and federal] dollars because in an institutional setting, we know that's going to cost the state and federal government a lot more money.' Stein's proposed state budget included $60 million to leverage federal and private resources to build more housing for low-income families, veterans, seniors and people with disabilities, he said. His proposal also includes $15 million for the Workforce Loan Program to aid in the construction and repair of affordable housing. He said he supports bipartisan proposals in the General Assembly to cut red tape and make it easier to build more homes. Budgets advanced by state lawmakers, however, have not been nearly so ambitious. State Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) said getting legislation passed to ease construction restrictions has been difficult this legislative session. Mayfield has introduced several housing-related bills including one that would allow more mixed-used developments across the state. 'We're working on it, but we haven't gotten anything passed yet,' Mayfield said. 'It's a little challenging … but I'm not giving up until that gavel comes down.' Mayfield said voting to increase density in many communities across the state has proven to be a 'one-way ticket to getting unelected.' 'Now, there are enlightened communities like Raleigh and Chapel Hill and Durham and Asheville where that's not so much the case, but we have some communities who are not there.' As a fan of local government, Mayfield said she doesn't like telling local officials what to do. But adopting state laws to increase density could give resistant communities a much-needed nudge. 'These bills are not trying to be punitive to local governments; they're just trying to say we're [lawmakers] going to take this problem and pull it up here, so you don't have political risk around it anymore,' Mayfield said. Homebuilder D.R. Bryan said local ordinances restricting density slows the development process and makes it difficult to build multi-family homes, which helps to increase the housing supply. Another obstacle, Bryan said, is city and town employees who continue to work from home five years after the pandemic. He said the practice also slows the development process. Many builders prefer to meet face-to-face to discuss project rather than over Zoom, he said. 'The people who are reviewing our plans, we're having to communicate through email and maybe Zoom, and you just can't get it done,' Bryan said. 'You need to sit there and either have paper plans or a computer and say, 'OK, what do you mean here or there?''
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Advocates alarmed over proposed cuts to workforce housing loan program
Commerce Street Apartments will be adjacent to Elizabeth Street Apartments shown here. (Photo: Greg Childress) North Carolina housing advocates are sounding the alarm over proposed cuts to the Workforce Housing Loan Program (WHLP) administered by the N.C. Housing Finance Agency (NCHFA) in combination with federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. The state Senate's version of the FY 25-27 budget does not include funding for WHLP. The House version allocates $5 million for one year of the two-year biennium. Gov. Josh Stein's spending plan calls for $30 million in non-recurring funding for the WHLP. The previous budget included $35 million in non-recurring program funding. The WHLP was created to help 'construct or substantially rehabilitate' multi-family affordable housing units. The money is used in combination with federal low-income housing tax credits to provide gap funding to make affordable housing development financially feasible in difficult-to-serve markets. The WHLP has financed thousands of apartments for seniors, families and members of the state's workforce across 59 counties since it was created 10 years ago. The proposed program cuts come as the need for affordable housing grows across the state, members of the N.C. Housing Coalition said last week. 'Without the WHLP, many developments would not be possible, especially in rural areas,' a coalition spokesperson said during its weekly housing call. 'As construction and development costs continue to rise, cuts to this program could shutter much needed investments into the construction and preservation of affordable homes across the state.' The coalition is urging housing advocates and others across the state to contact members of the House Appropriations Committee and urge them to protect and restore the WHLP to $35 million. 'This is an existing program that works, and we already know it works, and it does a really wonderful job of leveraging public funds with private dollars,' said Stephanie Watkins-Cruz, the coalition's director of housing policy. 'If there's ever a time to not cut housing investments, this is the time.' Watkins-Cruz noted that the program is structured so that Tier 1 counties are eligible for up to $3 million in funding. Tier 1 counties are the most economically distressed among the state's three tiers. Several counties in the 2025 Qualified Allocation Plan are in eastern North Carolina. Several are also on the list of disaster-impacted counties from Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. They include Alexander, Graham, McDowell, Mitchell, Rutherford, and Wilkes counties. To see the full list of counties in each tier, click here to visit the 2025 Final QAP. See page 8 for county award limits.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Winston-Salem's housing authority leader to resign effective June 30
Activists and tenants gather near Housing Authority of Winston-Salem headquarters in April to protest conditions in public housing. (Photo: Greg Childress) Kevin Cheshire, the executive director and general counsel of the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem (HAWS), is stepping down, effective June 30, after five years in the role. Cheshire said he will remain with the housing authority in an advisory role to maintain continuity while his replacement is 'brought up to speed' on the workings of the organization. 'This has been in the works for almost two years, at least a year and a half,' Cheshire said. 'My board has known this is the plan and the mayor (Allen Joines) has known this is the plan.' Cheshire said his pending departure is unrelated to the call from some tenants and local housing activists for his resignation over concerns about his management of the city's aging public housing high rises. Tenants have complained that Cheshire is inattentive to their concerns and has failed to maintain safe and sanitary housing at several apartment complexes managed by HAWS. 'I had sort of anticipated that the folks who were being the most vocal demanding my resignation had already gotten wind of the fact that my resignation was imminent, and that they were planning strategically to take credit for something they knew was already coming,' Cheshire said. 'Whether that's the case, I still have no idea. But no, it [calls for his resignation] didn't [play a role] because that decision had already been made.' In an online post, the group Housing Justice Now, a tenant advocacy group that has been critical of Cheshire's leadership, celebrated the departure as a victory. 'He has ignored needed public housing renovations while pouring millions into the HAWS office building, underutilized Section 8 vouchers, bungled a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods grant, pursued retaliatory evictions, and pushed through a meaningless rebrand of the agency,' the group said. 'Tenant organizing at Crystal Towers, Healy Towers, Cleveland Avenue, and across our city made it impossible for Cheshire to push through even more bad policies. Make no mistake, this resignation is an organizing victory! And we demand the next executive director be truly dedicated to low-income housing!' Dan Rose, an activist with Housing Justice Now, said Cheshire has not served Winston-Salem well. 'The fact that Mayor Joines believes he did shows that the problem is not isolated to one public official,' Rose said. 'Residents that are directly affected by the housing crisis should be selecting the housing authority's next leader; not the mayor's out-of-touch board of commissioners.' Andrew Perkins, chairman of the HAWS Board of Commissioners, said the board will be 'genuinely sorry' to see Chesire step down. 'We have known for over a year that he wanted to transition once he completed some very important initiatives for the Housing Authority,' Perkins said. 'Kevin and his team have worked closely with the board and have accomplished everything we asked of them and more.' Perkins said Cheshire and his team have made great progress in creating more affordable housing. He noted the $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative redevelopment grant Cheshire helped to secure from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – the first to be awarded in North Carolina. Cheshire joined HAWS in 2013 as vice president of real estate development and general counsel. After a national search following the retirement of former executive director Larry Woods, Cheshire was promoted to the position in January 2020. 'I've been here 12 years, and this was never something I intended to do for 20 or 30 years,' Cheshire said. 'There were some very specific tasks that the board and I discussed when I first stepped into the role. I was committed to doing everything in my power to completing those tasks and then stepping aside to allow someone else to build on that foundation.'
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NC House bills will undercut services to homeless vets
People experiencing homelessness in Raleigh pack to leave an encampment off of Highway 70 near Interstate 40. (Photo: Greg Childress) As a U.S. Navy veteran, I am honored to manage a team that serves other veterans who find themselves without a home in North Carolina. In my role as director of outreach for Veterans Services of The Carolinas (VSC), our team collaborates daily with the faith-based community, mental health and substance use providers, LME/MCOs, law enforcement, housing providers, and others across all 100 counties of North Carolina. That experience has provided us with deep insight into what works and what doesn't. Two pending bills in the North Carolina General Assembly will have a direct impact on our communities, service providers, law enforcement, and those we serve. Both are promoted—as they were in other targeted states —by an interest group out of Austin, Texas, called Cicero Action. Joe Lonsdale, its founder, is a venture capitalist with ties to those in private prison contracting, including technology for the newer field of e-carceration. One bill – House Bill 437 – would criminalize nonprofits like ours by threatening felony charges if drug activity occurs within 100 feet of our facilities — an extreme and unworkable standard that punishes service providers for circumstances beyond their control. The other — House Bill 781 — establishes new requirements on cities and counties to set up state-sanctioned homeless encampments for up to a year without additional funding. Going after nonprofits and supporting unfunded mandates is not on-brand for the state of North Carolina, but neither is disrespecting our faith-based and veteran leaders who the Cicero lobbyists characterize as unserious activists. Representatives for four bishops overseeing 1200 North Carolina Episcopal and United Methodist churches joined VSC and other veterans in sharing concerns about these bills and the impacts they will have at multiple House committee podiums. And yet, the bill passed out of the House and now awaits a round of committee hearings in the Senate. Under the guise of a self-described think tank, the Cicero Institute—in the absence of data—blames the Housing First model for the increase of homelessness. From Texas, it declares there is no lack of affordable housing in North Carolina and glosses over how two out of three of its residents experiencing homelessness in recent years are experiencing it for the first time. Prioritizing housing with wrap-around services—the housing first model—has been the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs approach since 2012. More than 133,000 veterans were housed and provided with supportive services to help them retain housing over the last three years. The practice was first introduced by the George W. Bush Administration and has enjoyed subsequent bipartisan support because of data showing its effectiveness. The average number of returns to homelessness across the state utilizing Housing First is less than 13%. The City of Raleigh estimates it costs $96,000 a year in emergency services, law enforcement and health care for a homeless person living outside. As Raleigh's News & Observer reported recently, putting someone in a home and making services available costs $20,000 — saving taxpayers' $76,000 per person. In contrast, another local government projected the cost of installing just one Greenflow unit to provide the bill's requirement of running water and restrooms at up to $200,000 alone. Will local governments have to add this cost and others in their capital improvement or their regular budgets to meet the state's approval? Will property tax increases be required to move the state-sanctioned encampments around each year? Additionally, legal counsels from local governments have raised concerns about increased liability and incarceration along with decreased local control–as reported by their colleagues in states where the Cicero bills have passed into law. Cicero offers no data to indicate its proposal will do anything to end homelessness—just make it less visible. A month after the Florida encampment law went into effect last year, the first lawsuit was filed, resulting in a hasty sweep of an encampment without a plan for where people would go. Ongoing treatment for substance use and medications for mental illness are interrupted or lost when caseworkers and peer support specialists cannot find those they serve. State-sanctioned, compulsive homeless encampments will drive unsheltered veterans further from the resources needed and further away from sustainable recovery, while putting the onus on our local law enforcement. Especially in the context of yesterday's annual observance of Memorial Day, it makes no sense for our leaders to pass laws that criminalize those who have given up so much for the freedoms we enjoy. Our General Assembly members would serve their communities more effectively by investing in solutions that have been proven to work and are cost effective.
