Community Corner
Plan To Improve Access To Affordable Housing In Greensboro Is Approved
The council approved a 10-year plan that commits $50 million in local funding to improve access to, and the condition of, affordable housing
Post Date:10/26/2020 9:49 AM
At its October 20 meeting, City Council approved a 10-year plan that aims to commit $50 million in local funding to improve access to, and the condition of, affordable housing in Greensboro.
Find out what's happening in Greensborofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Called Housing GSO: Creating Opportunities to Build a Better Community, the plan has four primary goals:
- Provide affordable rental homes
- Reinvest in neighborhoods
- Provide access to homeownership
- Provide supportive housing.
Review the full plan here. The final document outlines Greensboro’s current housing needs and the impact of those needs, solutions to these issues, and a plan for implementation.
Find out what's happening in Greensborofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The implementation phase, planned to begin in early 2021, will address the creation of a preservation fund to be used to buy multi-family properties, rehabilitate them, and use them as affordable housing. The Housing GSO plan also outlines funding options over the next 10 years.
According to Stan Wilson, director of the Neighborhood Development Department that oversees Housing GSO, neighborhoods his staff are looking at for reinvestment include Dudley Heights, Glenwood, Random Woods, King’s Forest and the Mill District. The plan aims to add up to 6,000 additional affordable units to Greensboro.
Another part of the implementation phase of the plan is to work with stakeholders to determine what needs exist in these neighborhoods.
“We will work with our partners to help people understand affordable housing, who needs it in our community, and how they can help,” Wilson says. “The implementation phase of the plan is really going to be a community effort.”
Since May 2019, staff from the Neighborhood Development Department and other City departments worked with consultants HR&A Advisors on the plan. Part of the process involved using local, state and federal housing data and interviewing City officials, local housing-related organizations, vulnerable populations, and community leaders.
Several public meetings and surveys were conducted to find out what was important to residents, and drafts of the plan were made available online and on social media.
This press release was produced by the City of Greensboro. The views expressed here are the author’s own.