Welcome! We are so happy to have you here. Please feel free to say hello to everyone in the chat and let us know what brought you here today.

To learn more about The Women’s Fund and how to join, please visit https://www.womensfundws.org/get-involved/become-a-member

We are so grateful to our panelists and moderator for sharing their time with us today. Their names and organizations are as follows (we will also send an email after the event with their information):Ruth Cole Burcaw, City with Dwellings - https://www.citywithdwellings.org/Andrea Kurtz, Housing Matters Initiative of the United Way of Forsyth County - https://www.forsythunitedway.org/our-initiatives/Twana Roebuck, Experiment in Self-Reliance - https://eisr.org/Dan Rose, Housing Justice Now - https://www.facebook.com/HousingJusticeNowWS/Lori Fuller (moderator), Women's Fund of Winston-Salem Board Chair- www.womensfundws.org 

I see items in the newspaper that many of our apartment complexes are being bought by giant out of state owners and thus driving up prices and profit

Brooke--yes, that is a part of the problem. It is also a problem because it pulls wealth out of our community because these owners are not investing back into Winston-Salem.

As a single mother, I get it. The issues can also be finding affordable daycare near affordable housing, and good/safe schools for our kids. There may be a housing option available, but, it is made increasingly harder without these other important aspects.

The prices of housing in the area have gone wild. I moved about 6 months ago and when my property manager listed my apartment as available, it was listed as $300 more than what I was paying and it was updated before I moved in so did not need updating. So many properties are bumping their rent up excessively because they can.

I used to live near downtown before buying my home last year and there are multiple apartment complexes being built or just recently completed that are priced significantly higher than wages can sustain. Why can’t our local government work to bring affordable housing downtown and attract locals to live there? Forgo amenities that drive costs up and focus on basic livable space.

3/4 of renters who qualify for housing assistance receive none.

@lesley our local politicians have been unwilling to dedicate local budget money to help subsidize housing project for regular folks. but they have dedicated our tax dollars to projects most of us don't benefit from.

Sunrise

@lesley when you see articles in the paper talking about new affordable housing units, it's always just a fraction of the apartments being built and that "affordable" rent is often still extremely high. all because our local policies and budget are WEAK and old fashioned

Housing should generate shelter not profit. The continued investment in private investment and development has enabled the crisis & it is the de facto solution for many of our elected officials on the city and county level.

Good point Ms. Roebuck, on the schools that serve children in subsidized housing. Here is my research showing that those schools are significantly lower in quality: http://cdiwsnc.org/project/public-housing-and-public-schools-are-subsidized-residents-at-an-educational-disadvantage/

I agree with you @deloris

This City is incentivizing "workforce housing" for people at or below 120% of area median income. Most of us on this panel are working with folks at or below 50% AMI

I have lived where every new complex must include a certain percentage of low cost units

but even then, those rents are really not very affordable

what about people at 30, 20, 10, or 0 percent?

The United Nations declared housing a human right in 1947. The United States has been in violation of this for over 70 years.

and "low cost units" usually refer to non-market rate.. workforce housing falls into that cohort

@brooke we have that policy here. it's weak. it's too small of a percentage and the definition of "affordable" is laughable.

we need local investment and much better federal investment.

absolutely @ Deloris

AMEN!We can not social service our way out of poverty!

@lisa, tell that to city and county! they only point to private companies and non profits to fix these problems.

Dan Besse is running for County Commissioner

so is Philip Carter. A long time advocate. we need better folks up there 👍👍

right to counsel through legal aid can make a huge difference in actually keeping people housed and they have the power to do it through the city and the county - its the FLOOR of what they should do and they haven't yet

To Twana's statement about senior housing, I am so worried about our future with that. Having worked in admissions with Senior Communities, it was a common occurrence for crying families to leave my office having learned of the costs to provide for mom or dad. They couldn't qualify for Medicaid as income or assets may have been slightly higher than the threshold. and they were not prepared for the exhorbitant cost of senior housing, especially if there is medical care needed. I moved here from an area that we creating a sustainable, affordable tiny house community for seniors.

https://t.co/Ftxybyt6hGPhillip Carter has worked with HJN and is running for county commissioner - he understands housing issues

agree Kathleen. it's so tenuous for most of us with elders in our care

We have the chairs. They're just being hoarded for profit

There are a lot of churches here who could teach people about the needs of other neighbors

Yes, they're not affordable chairs, Dan.

^^^

The county officials forget that city property owners also pay county taxes. Ergo, the county does have responsibility in the city.

Thank you to everyone for your chat engagement. Please note that The Women's Fund is nonpartisan and does not endorse political candidates.

I will say talk to all your elected representatives...no matter their party!

As an HJN eviction court supporter - the demographic I see overwhelmingly in court is black mothers. Without the right to counsel they almost always lose and they also have no way to hold landlords accountable for terrible conditions like mold or water damage etc … this inevitably leads to homelessness … even if not on the streets they are doubled up with families and friends or in their cars. Eviction is traumatizing for children

I heard recently that Forsyth County was on track for 10,000 evictions this year and we typically have about 3,000. Is this what you are hearing @Dan?

Yes, this is an "average" year and we are on pace for approximately 10,000 eviction hearings.

Here is the data showing Winston-Salem is #16 nationally for evictions: https://evictionlab.org/rankings/#/evictions?r=United%20States&a=0&d=evictionRate&lang=en