In 2022, as Greensboro’s housing issues persisted, residents approved $30 million in bonds to help support a number of programs in the city. These included affordable housing, efforts to increase homeownership, and funding for neighborhood reinvestment and improvement.
In the three years since, the city has moved $8 million, a little less than a third of the money. This week the Greensboro City Council will vote on releasing another $10 million in housing bonds, opening the money up for use in the city.
“We have money that we really need to spend,” District 1 Council Member Sharon Hightower said at a council meeting earlier this month.
The money could be an antidote to Greensboro’s ongoing housing crisis, which has been a topic of discussion for years. The council faces mounting pressure to address several interconnected issues: rising rents, a shortage of affordable housing, a limited number of available units, and an expected boom in the area’s workforce that will require thousands of new units, straining the housing market even further.
But for the bond money to be helpful, city officials say it must be used correctly. Some council members say they are frustrated by how the money has been spent so far.
“We know that there’s an underserved area that needs to be served,” said Hightower in a recent interview. “To me, this money could have helped do that.”
More Problems, More Money
When the housing bond was approved in 2022, it was one of five bond referendums on city ballots. In total, voters were asked to decide on $135 million in bond funds, approving individual pools of money for parks and recreation, fire department and police facilities, transportation, and housing. At $30 million, the housing bond was the second largest amount approved by voters.
The city hasn’t yet spent $22 million, a little more than two-thirds of what voters gave them. The money will be issued in four rounds between 2023-’29. The city council will vote Tuesday on the next $10 million in housing bonds.
Cynthia Blue with the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development says her department is still putting together its exact plan for how it hopes to spend the upcoming $10 million. When it comes to the housing bonds more broadly, she said, the city is looking to focus on four categories: affordable rental housing, supportive housing, access to homeownership, and neighborhood reinvestment. The process of determining how to spend the money takes time, Blue said, in part because getting community input is important.
“We’ve really got to take a look at what are the market conditions, what are the neighborhood needs, what do the neighborhoods want to see,” Blue said. ”And then create those programs that will help them get there.”
The bond money will also be used to help the city accomplish the housing goals outlined in its 10-year Housing GSO plan, which will hit the halfway point later this year.
As that benchmark nears, officials say more action and communication between the council and the groups managing the bond money is needed.
“We need to make sure we are strategic in this money and how we spend it,” said District 5 council member Tammi Thurm at last week’s council meeting.
Under Scrutiny
In a recent interview with The Thread, Hightower expressed reservations about how the housing bond money has been spent so far, specifically calling attention to $5 million in bond money the city contributed to a housing loan fund last year.
The city announced the Greensboro Housing Loan Fund in early 2024. With a little over $32 million in its coffers, it aims to support developers of different sizes as they create and improve housing in the city.
The money has been divided in two. Roughly two-thirds is allocated to the Self-Help Ventures Fund to support larger developers’ work to preserve and maintain existing housing and construct new developments.
The rest of the roughly $10 million is going to Institute Capital, a Durham-based federally recognized community development financial institution focused on supporting smaller developers from marginalized communities.
Kevin J. Price, the president and CEO of Institute Capital, says the city’s contribution has been privately matched by an additional $5.6 million. The money is intended to provide loans to support smaller-scale projects like duplexes, triplexes, and multifamily properties.
“Our focus is on those smaller developers and giving them an opportunity to build their skill set,” Price said in a recent interview.
The goal, he said, is to help them gain the needed experience to continue to work in the field and ultimately, create more affordable housing.
According to data provided to The Thread, Institute Capital provided $472,000 in matching loans through the fund for three local rental rehabilitation projects by the end of 2024. Last year, the organization received nine applicants. One applicant was approved but did not close. Five others withdrew or were denied.
“The money is being deployed through loans that are low, well below market,” said Roberta McCullough, a senior vice president and chief operating officer for Institute Capital. he says, it’s going to “developers that are doing preservation and some new construction in Greensboro proper.”
But Hightower said the money is not being dispersed quickly enough.
“We need housing,” Hightower said. “We got people who are saying, you know, ‘I can’t afford certain housing, what are y’all doing?’ And we do have building going on, but we could have a little bit more of it going on.”
The city could have considered working directly with Greensboro-based organizations, she said, or issued a request for proposals that ultimately went to the housing fund.
Now, with more bond money on the way, Hightower says the city must ensure both past and future spending will produce results.
Those working with the housing money say building and improving the issue takes time. The process of approving loans can often take months, potentially longer if errors are made on an application. Issuing requests for proposals can also extend the timeline. Even after a project has been approved, it could be years before that translates into an actual open property available for the public.
The speed the council wants might not be possible, say city staff working on the issue.
“Houses don’t pop out like mushrooms,” said Blue.
P.R. Lockhart is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly and a Report for America corps member. She previously reported for the Mountain State Spotlight and Vox, and studied psychology and journalism at Duke University.