Housing GSO: HRA Greensboro Affordable Housing Plan

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SUMMARY

NOTES | Community Engagement Meetings

October 15, 2019 Meeting with Justin Outling, City Council District 3

• We don’t have classical gentrification, need to provide people with more accurate terms— the concern is housing quality issues, that is what is displacing people, not high-end condos. • Going to be a challenge to prioritize affordable rental housing: major failure is prioritization, because the City often “see ks to do everything for everyone” • His priorities: addressing blight through code enforcement — neighborhood revitalization o In 2016, they revised housing ordinance so City could make repairs on substandard housing by placing liens on properties o He sees this as effective for blight and cash flow issues for landlords with affordable units o There are many people who can’t make repairs because then they will have to raise rents— helping these people through City having a first-priority lien on a property could help o Thinks about code enforcement as “revenue - neutral”: in any scenario, the City gets an asset • Thoughts about neighborhood prioritization o The Old Asheboro/Martin Luther King area would be a good one to start with — City has put in a lot of money to revitalize (streetscaping), but with varying success ▪ It’s proximate to downtown and could be affordable within this ▪ Tons of blight, high crime, etc. • Where did they miss the mark/why isn’t Ole Asheboro more effective? o There still isn’t a great enough degree of prioritization o City doesn’t say with its budget that they’ll provide enough enforcement staff to be proactive in these targeted areas (not just waiting for reports) o Councilmembers don’t ever look particularly at a single neighborhood, and repeatedly/continually ask for updates on them— moreso at the district level, which is meaningless o Lack of focus and prioritization is one of the largest challenges in Greensboro • In the civic side, who would be your civic partners? o Neighborhood association sides will be important — Ole Asheboro has a neighborhood association o PROBLEM: Greensboro is unique in that you have neighborhood organizations that are politically influential enough to stop things, but not influential enough to get things done o EX: improved housing ordinance with commercial property exemption that allowed for liens in these areas — Chamber is not present for advocacy when the interest group comes to the table to fight — very hard to build proactive coalitions here • While there have been successful issue based coalitions, there have not been large scale successes, and most larger projects have overwhelmingly been done by foundations (in “partnership” with City government/City funds) o EX: The Greenway is driven by Action Greensboro, minor league baseball station was by Bryant Foundation, Tanger Center was more of a combination, so more successful • End thoughts: his priorities would be neighborhood revitalization o To a lesser extent, affordable homeownership (here, Greensboro doesn’t have explosive growth and property values, so it’s not a super valuable wealth-building proposition for many people)

HR&A Advisors, Inc.

Page 112