Will the NC General Assembly Help Cities Address Housing Affordability in 2023?
As RaleighForward explained in past articles, the lingering effects of the Great Recession and years of benign neglect in the face of rapid urbanization contributed to the worsening housing crisis here and in cities across the country. Things in Raleigh began to change with the 2019 election of a City Council willing to acknowledge the damaging effects of the emerging housing crisis. Since then, Raleigh has become a national leader by adopting aggressive regulatory reforms designed to address housing affordability*. Furthering this effort, voters approved the largest affordable housing bond in the City’s history. That $80 million is now being deployed across the City. Unfortunately, the housing crisis has been decades in the making and will take years to resolve. Given Raleigh’s aggressive and comprehensive effort to address the housing crisis between 2019 and 2022, 2023 will likely be about fine-tuning as staff continues implementing recent reforms and Council continues deploying the 2020 affordable housing bond revenue.
Even the Federal Government stepped up its efforts to address the housing crisis in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic. Congress provided state and local governments with billions of dollars in emergency aid to help people facing homelessness and housing insecurity. Raleigh received approximately $72 million in American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) funds, while Wake County received approximately $216 million in ARPA funds (the most of any county in NC). Additionally, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) and President Biden announced a plan to leverage IRA funding to address housing supply and affordability.
As Raleigh and the Federal government continue implementing their respective plans and reforms to address the housing crisis, it’s now time for the North Carolina General Assembly to join the effort as it convenes for the 2023 legislative session. With a budget surpluses approaching $7 billion, the Governor and General Assembly certainly have the financial resources to provide substantially more money to help local governments and housing authorities build badly needed permanent affordable housing.
A modest legislative reform effort stalled in the last legislative session. Senate Bill 349 (House Bill 401) would have eliminated exclusionary zoning across the state, mandated that accessory dwelling units be allowed on most residential lots, along with other regulatory reforms. To City Council’s credit, Raleigh enacted most of the reforms that would have been mandated in Senate Bill 349, which suggests the General Assembly needs to support aggressive housing reforms in 2023.
There are some hopeful indicators leading into the 2023 legislative session. An informal bipartisan working group sponsored by the CATO Institute and the John Locke Foundation studying potential housing reforms wrapped up its work late last year. Though no specific regulatory reform recommendations were announced, it would not be surprising to see many of the proposed reforms in Senate Bill 349 resurface. With the Republican Party retaining control of the General Assembly, any forthcoming proposals will likely focus on free market solutions and deregulation rather than granting local governments the authority to develop housing solutions tailored to the needs of their citizens.
While we may not agree on solutions, it seems we at least agree there is a housing affordability crisis. We consider that progress.
* To ensure the community understands what the City has done to address housing affordability, Raleigh Planning staff have begun a sweeping community outreach effort that includes detailed information about what steps the City has taken.