GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro leaders hope a new push to raise money for affordable housing will help them keep up with demand.
The city projects that by the year 2030, it will need 11,000 more affordable housing units. City council approved two measures addressing affordable housing needs Tuesday.
The first included allocating $5 million worth of the city's housing bonds to the Greensboro Housing Fund.
The fund is run through the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro which has a goal of $32 million to build and rehab affordable housing.
Private donors already donated $22 million. The $5 million from the city still leaves the fund $5 million short of the $32 million goal.
Community Foundation Senior Program Officer Marcus Thomas said announcements on additional funding are coming soon.
It comes amid high demand for affordable housing. Redhill Pointe Apartments opened 83 units for low-income families last month. The waitlist for that complex had 900 people on it.
Thomas said it's hard to know how many new units will be built with money from the Greensboro Housing Fund.
He projects up to 1,100 units could be refurbished with the money, many of which are in East Greensboro.
"Most of Greensboro‘s multi-family affordable housing units are at least 50 years old," Thomas said. "With the great economic development announcements that have been coming with Toyota, Publix, and Boom Supersonic, we need to ensure that we have additional housing opportunities for those employees who will be coming to the area to take some of those jobs."
It's part of a plan the city put in place in 2020 called Housing GSO, aimed at fixing Greensboro's housing shortage.
Cynthia Blue with Greensboro Housing and Neighborhood Development said the loss of housing is expected to increase.
"The Housing GSO Plan identified a current shortage of about 4,000 affordable units," Blue added. "The bigger problem is that we’re losing them faster than we can produce them with rising rents. The net loss over the next 10 years is projected to rise to about 11,000 affordable units that we need. We are doing everything that we can to reverse that and create more."
Another piece of the city's plan is to make sure people are able to repair the homes they already have.
The city council also approved Home Repair GSO Tuesday. It will give eligible low-income homeowners up to $20 thousand to repair things like plumbing, electrical or structural problems.
Blue said there are at least 90 people already on the waitlist.
"Construction costs are increasing all the time right now. We know it’s a struggle, especially for low-income homeowners to maintain their homes," Blue said. "If we can get out there and get ahead of some of the damage and correct things while minor issues, then it doesn't spread to those conditions that really cost a lot of money."
Blue said her department along with partner agencies will spend the next few weeks working on an application site for home repairs. The goal is to repair 60-75 homes a year.