By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
CARRBORO – The Carrboro Board of Aldermen on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the use of $9,000 in affordable-housing funds to connect the Hillsborough Road Cooperative to the public sewer system.
The Hillsborough Road Cooperative, two houses at the corner of Hillsborough Road where it meets North Greensboro Street, is part of the Weaver Community Housing Association. WCHA requested $9,000 of the $27,000 needed to connect the two houses to the public sewer system after the cooperative’s aging septic system began to fail in April.
The town’s Affordable Housing Special Revenue fund was created by the town in 2007 to assist with increasing the stock of affordable, safe and decent housing in Carrboro. Developers make payments to the fund in lieu of providing affordable housing within projects. Community Home Trust executive director Robert Dowling recommended the use of the fund – which currently has $11,750 – for this project.
WCHA founded the Hillsborough Road Cooperative in 2001, providing affordable housing to those earning 80 percent or less of the area median income. The board approved the request for funds with the caveat that new residents would be required to earn 60 percent or less of the area median income, with current residents grandfathered in under the previous 80 percent standard.
“We want to make sure we’re not subsidizing people who have access to larger amounts of money,†board member Jacquie Gist said.
The board also asked that residents maintain the property.
“I’m a little reluctant to allocate funds to a place that is so often such a mess,†Gist said. “It has been really, really messy for years, which is insulting to the neighbors that live around it.â€
WCHA representative Devin Ross said that residents had recently been making more of an effort to maintain the property and that they would continue to work to keep it clean.
“What we have been seeing around the clock is a renewed interest in civic responsibility,†Ross said. “I think the property looks better than it has in awhile.â€
“A lot of people over the years have thought that various things would be useful and they brought them there for us,†he continued. “These things don’t belong in our yard – they belong in a landfill, and that’s where they’re going.â€
Board member Randee Haven-O’Donnell encouraged residents to seek help with cleaning up the property by reaching out to the community, if they felt help was needed.
Board member Sammy Slade, who lives in another WCHA cooperative, said the organization is an inspirational model for affordable housing.
“The people who live there are very self-sufficient, inspiring people, and I think are a huge asset for Carrboro,†he said.
If this commune is so self-sufficient, why do we need to give them money for sewer hookup. And 80% of median income is the cut off for giving them this money out of the Affordable Housing Special Revenue fund? Surely there are folks in Carrboro who are more desperate for assistance than the members of the ‘Hillsborough Road Cooperative’ who choose to live in a commune, and I imagine, choose to have the income and lifestyle they have.
Carrboro has seriously lost its way. Shame on Jacqueline Gist who ‘ wants to make sure we’re not subsidizing people who have access to larger amounts of money’ yet voted to approve. Shame on Sammy Slade — who surely has a conflict of interest in this matter. Shame on the Board of Alderman for unanimously approving this $9000 request for funds.
Hi Ms. Baker,
It sounds like you have concerns about the loan that the Hillsborough Road Cooperative received from the Town. I think that I might be able to clarify a few points in order to help address some of your concerns.
As a result of receiving the loan, the HRC has agreed to cap the income of all new residents at 60% of the area median household income. This is typically the income cap for affordable rental housing in the area. All of our current residents have incomes that meet this cap, or that are less than this cap.
In order to reduce turnover and preserve institutional memory, residents who are admitted under the 60% cap will be allowed to stay in the co-op if their income increases above 60% AMI and remains below 80% AMI (this may be where you heard the 80% AMI figure). This allowance has been agreed to as an exception to our rule of capping the income at 60% AMI. To date, no member of the HRC is earning an income that approaches this figure (and presently it seems unlikely that any of our incomes are poised to increase dramatically).
Unfortunately, no member of the HRC currently has a choice in determining how much income we are earning. Most of us work in industries that are traditionally low paying or that have been negatively impacted by the recession. Like many people who are trying their best to navigate our nation’s long lasting economic downturn, we take the work we can get, although we often can’t get enough of it.
Please feel free to contact me at hillsboroughroadcoop@gmail.com if you have any other concerns that you would like me to address.
Sincerely,
Devin Ross