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Housing 400 Initiative

The North Carolina General Assembly created the Housing 400 Initiative in 2006 to finance independent supportive apartments for persons with disabilities.  All the apartments are affordable for people living on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is approximately $674 a month for 2009.

The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are partners in this effort.  The Agency develops rental housing for persons with disabilities and DHHS provides rent assistance to make the apartments affordable for people living on SSI while they apply for permanent HUD rent assistance.

To date, 1,102 units targeted for persons with disabilities with incomes at or below 30% of median income have been awarded. The new housing is distributed from Beaufort to Chowan in the east, and Buncombe and Haywood in the west.  The apartments are located in towns with populations ranging from 671,588 (Charlotte) to 1,386 (Clyde). 

History

Since 2006, the General Assembly has appropriated $23.2 million in nonrecurring funds to the state’s Housing Trust Fund for the development of rental housing and has appropriated recurring funds to DHHS for operating assistance administered through the Key Program (Key). 

With the first appropriation, the General Assembly challenged the partnership to create 400 units; thus the name of the Initiative.  This goal was exceeded with funding to create 430 units.

The Agency leverages the Housing 400 Initiative money in the Trust Fund with other rental development financing, including federal and state tax credits, HOME, undesignated Trust Fund dollars, other federal subsidies, and funds from local governments and banks.  Applicants for the Initiative programs range from nonprofit and for-profit corporations to housing authorities. These groups partner with local lead agencies that refer potential tenants supported by their local service providers.

Four programs have implemented the Initiative.  Units for people with disabilities with incomes at or below 30% median income are called targeted units.  The largest producer of targeted units is the Housing Credit (HC) program, which creates approximately 250 units each year by requiring 10% of all HC units to be targeted.  The Supportive Housing Development 400 (SHDP400) program promotes small-scale stand-alone rental developments with supportive services.  All units produced in this program are targeted.  The Preservation Loan (PLP) program creates targeted units in properties that request rehabilitation funds for older, federally subsidized apartments.  PLP requires that the greater of 5 units or 10% of all units be targeted. 

The fourth program allows properties previously funded under all Agency rental development programs to voluntarily create targeted units.  A maximum of 20% of all units could become targeted units and be eligible for Key. All targeted units are eligible for operating assistance through Key, which covers the gap between what extremely low income residents can afford to pay and a statewide payment standard set to provide what the property needs to operate.

For more information about the Housing 400 Initiative, contact either Patricia Amend, NCHFA Director of Policy, Planning & Technology at plamend@nchfa.com or (919) 877-5717 or Julia Bick, DHHS Housing Coordinator at Julia.Bick@ncmail.net or (919) 733-4534.