Benefits of affordable housing extend beyond providing a roof over one’s head

Benefits of affordable housing extend beyond providing a roof over one’s head

Ultimately, the transformative capacity of affordable housing extends beyond providing a roof over one’s head. It acts as a catalyst for community wide improvements, positively impacting crime rates, mental health, incarceration rates and childhood learning. This isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s essential and it’s a key requirement for a thriving community.

Reinstate Raleigh’s BRT promise: Use transit to strengthen New Bern households and families, not displace them.

Reinstate Raleigh’s BRT promise: Use transit to strengthen New Bern households and families, not displace them.

In 2016 Raleigh’s Planning Director promised Raleigh’s BRT would serve “some of Raleigh’s lowest-wealth communities .. [and] ensure that these investments benefit rather than displace households and  families.” At the New Bern BRT Kickoff Meeting, a senior city planner pledged the city would “make sure the BRT benefits … are shared equitably … so that existing residents of the New Bern corridor … are going to be there to benefit”

New Bern BRT: Bait & Switch or Just Action?

New Bern BRT: Bait & Switch or Just Action?

In 2017, ‘The Color of Law’ landed like a bombshell in progressive housing policy circles. In Raleigh, powerful development interests saw the opportunity to adopt — some would say co-opt — Richard Rothstein’s anti-segregation message by promoting pro-density zoning rules that not only lifted exclusionary zoning rules, but went much further. By 2020, a new alliance of developer money, self-righteous Council aspirants and their white privileged adherents provided the lubrication to fast track pro-density zoning proposals. Novice Councilors were assured that pesky public input needn’t impede this sweet deal to meld profits and equity.