Winston-Salem Officials Discuss Affordable Housing Solutions

Winston-Salem City Council is considering solutions for more affordable housing. At a work session Monday researchers used data to give a snapshot of what's happening in the community.

Nearly half of renter households in Forsyth County are “cost-burdened,” according to data from the UNC School of Government. That means they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs.

Twenty-six percent of Forsyth residents are severely cost-burdened, and in Winston-Salem, it's even higher.

Some of the trends show the need for more housing to support a growing senior population, people with disabilities and an increase in single households under 40.

UNC School of Government's Sarah Odio says rising rent and other factors create challenges. She says all of this information can be helpful in creating a plan that works for the community.

“Your resources are limited so you need to sit down and say hey what are our priorities today, what are our interests," says Odio. "Who do you want to target? Seniors, families, extremely low income, low, moderate income; do you want it to be rental or homeownership. Is this a city-wide effort or do you want to focus your efforts on a neighborhood?”

Possible solutions include the city putting a bond on the ballot for affordable housing, creating banking and land trusts, and tapping into federal COVID relief funds for more development.

Mayor Allen Joines says the current focus is to build 750 new units each year in order to meet the city's future goal of more than 15,000 units. 

The issue will be revisited by City Council later this month. 

Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news