Cole McMullin, an active member of Raleigh Democratic Socialists of America spoke to City Council at a Public Hearing on the Federal HUD Consolidated Plan:
Nearly half of the housing stock in Raleigh is rental housing and much of the affordable housing efforts by the city have been gap financing for affordable rental units.
Studies consistently show that the vast majority of tenants would prefer to own a home if given the option, but financial constraints often prevent them from doing so. And while the city of Raleigh has incorporated more dense, multi-family housing options into its housing mix, the lion’s share of multi-family units are rental.
I think there needs to be a greater focus on creating dense, affordable, multi-family home ownership opportunities, and I think the best way to go about this is by incentivizing and/or subsidizing the creation of limited equity housing cooperatives.
Limited equity cooperatives can be apartment style multi-family housing that differs from traditional apartments in that the units are owned by the people who live in them; instead of paying rent, monthly payments go towards mortgages, insurance, and association fees, allowing residents to build equity.
When the city puts out a request for proposals when developing affordable housing on city owned land, I think it is worthwhile to have scoring criteria that would incentivize the formation and creation of limited equity housing co-ops.
Additionally, I think the city should look for more opportunities to purchase existing apartment complexes for conversion to limited equity housing cooperatives to provide more ownership opportunities to low-income home buyers in Raleigh.
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