The Rent is Too Damn High – Video is here

Hillsborough-Wade CAC Affordable Housing Forum 8/25

Hi CAC neighbors,

This is a follow-up to our Hillsborough-Wade CAC meeting three weeks ago on Tuesday, August 25. If you missed the meeting or want to review what you heard, watch the video at the end of this post. As the below photos show we had a huge turnout. The event was moderated by our District D City Councilor Jane Harrison. Reeves Peeler did a great job of putting together a panel of four experts along with three video presentations. Jane Harrison gave us a lot of details and statistics about the affordable housing crisis from the national level to the local level (click here to watch Jane’s presentation). She also encouraged the audience to check out the City of Raleigh’s efforts to address the housing crisis (click here).

The four panelists:

• • Shaun Wilson, Mayor-Elect of the Outlander community and she organizes with the Eliza Park Homeless Initiative, shared her experiences with housing insecurity in Raleigh. Her personal story is very touching and very much worth watching (click here)! Also please read about the Outlander Community.
  • Nick MacLeod, Director of NC Tenants Union, has been organizing tenants for 18 years (click here to hear what he had to say).
  • Dr. Danielle Spurlock, UNC Professor of Land Use and Environmental Planning, tied housing affordability to environmental justice (click here).
  • Rhett Fussell, Founder of the Raleigh Area Land Trust, explained how community land trusts bring long-term affordability and can push back on gentrification in areas where traditional private property ownership fails (click here).

Three videos from the meeting:

• • San Francisco Community Land Trust 
  • South Carolina Tenants Union
  • Tenant organizer talks about rent control projects in San Francisco

We also had District E City Councilor Christina Jones, who is the Vice Chair of the Eliza Park Homeless Initiative, join us for the meeting. Plus a number of candidates running for City Council in this fall’s election. Affordable housing is a huge issue for Raleigh, so please take advantage of all the links in this email and vote this fall.

Our next Hillsborough-Wade CAC meeting will be a joint meeting with the Five Points CAC at the Pullen Community Center two weeks from this evening on Tuesday, September 29 at 7:00 PM. Our joint CAC meeting will be addressing the bad side-effects of the Glenwood South entertainment district experienced by our neighborhoods.

Michael Lindsay
Chair of the Hillsborough-Wade CAC

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