section 8 housing
I signed a new housing lease about a month ago in mid-October – a lease that won’t start until June of next year. This is how competitive student off-campus housing is in Chapel Hill, and the ever-high demand for student housing in Chapel Hill continues to negatively affect non-student renters.
Niche.com estimates that 90 percent of houses near campus fill up by October. From my experience, students looking to rent an affordable house (as opposed to a townhouse or apartment) begin the search as early as September. Every year this fight to find the closest, nicest and most affordable home puts additional stress on UNC students, and our desperation to sign a lease as soon as possible pits students against each other, increasing competition and driving prices up.
According to a 2010 report prepared by Development Concepts Inc., students make up about a third of all rented units in Chapel Hill (and rented housing comprises over half of all housing in Chapel Hill). We are a huge market for property owners and developers – on-campus housing can only accommodate 9,700 students, so the remaining 9,000 or so undergrads must find off-campus places.
This is a follow-up to several earlier posts about Section 8 Housing in Orange County. Read them first for background.
On behalf of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Just Housing Coalition, my assistant and I just talked to a lawyer with Justice NC, who confirmed that the reduction in HUD funding due to the federal sequestration is going to result in lower voucher values for Section 8 recipients.
Chapel Hill/Carrboro Just Housing Coalition is an informal alliance that is forming to work against injustice and for affordable housing in our community.
We are seeking organizations, citizens, and elected officials in the Chapel Hill - Carrboro area concerned about equitable and just living options and wages for all residents of our community.
Read more about the "tsunami" of events that is creating a housing crisis in our community.
If you would like to formally join our coalition, we would love to have you on board. You are welcome to attend our upcoming meeting, or stay tuned for a community petition and call to action.
Participating organizations: Human Rights Center of Chapel Hill & Carrboro; Mutual Aid Carrboro; Real Advocates Now Emerging (RANE) of Orange, Person and Chatham Counties; Carolina Coalition for Disability Justice
Date:
Friday, August 9, 2013 - 3:30pm to 4:30pm
Location:
Human Rights Center, 107 Barnes Street, Carrboro, NC
I am actively seeking help to address this problem. As I wrote before, we are looking at the possibility a lot of newly homeless folk in Orange County. The best information I have says that the GSC decision to kick people out violates HUD, and we need to file a complaint. I don't know how to do this, but if you do, or know someone who can help, please contact me, or come to the meeting on August 2nd at the Human Rights Center in Carrboro at 4pm.
Jose knows someone at the HUD office in Raleigh, and today I talked with two people in the national office. They said that we have grounds for filling a report.. Here is the exact wording -
"Housing discrimination based on your race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability is illegal by federal law. If you have been trying to buy or rent a home or apartment and you believe your rights have been violated, you can file a fair housing complaint."
Both people with whom I spoke interpreted "national origins" to mean that non-U.S. citizens cannot be discriminated against.
Multiple strains on Section 8 housing are creating major worry for those who depend on affordable housing in Orange County.
The recent floods are perhaps receiving the most news coverage.
However, General Service Corporation, which according to the Chapel Hill News, owns nine apartment complexes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, recently announced that it will no longer accept rent vouchers. This means that as leases run out in the coming months, low income citizens will be thrown into housing crisis. With so little affordable housing available already, GSC's announcment means that the properties available to low-income renters will be even more sparse and hard to come by.
Additionally, a letter from Tara Fikes, Orange County Housing Director, that went out to HUD recipients this past week cited the federal sequestration as a strain on local budgets. "Here in Orange County, this will mean a reduction of more than $250,000 in how much our Section 8 program will have available to pay in rental assistance," the letter stated.
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