2019/02/26/What You Need to Know About the Housing Bond
- when: 2019/02/26
- author: Sarah Willets
- source: IndyWeek
- topics: US/NC/Durham/elections/2019/housing bond Steve Schewel gentrification
- keywords
- link: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/durham-largest-affordable-housing-bond-north-carolina/
- title: What You Need to Know About the Largest Proposed Housing Bond Referendum in North Carolina History
- summary: "In [Mayor Steve Schewel's] view, the city's current funding for affordable housing isn’t enough to keep downtown from becoming an expensive enclave for white people. If residents are serious about preventing displacement, they need to put their money where their mouths are."
Some numbers from the article:
In 2000, according to the Planning Department, 49 percent of Durham’s housing stock was affordable to three-person households earning 80 percent of the area median income, and 26 percent was affordable to households earning 60 percent of the AMI. By 2015, those earning 80 percent of the AMI could only afford about a third of Durham housing units. For those earning 60 percent of the AMI, just 14 percent was affordable.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, nearly half of Durham households – 53,525 to be exact – earn 80 percent of the AMI or less. (In 2018, that was about $72,000 for a family of three.) Eighteen thousand families earn less than 30 percent of the AMI, about $21,700.