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Rebecca Hefner: So the NEST Commission was established through the Charlotte 2040 comprehensive plan. It was a recommendation of that plan to establish an anti-displacement Commission.
Kim Graham: We were charged with ensuring that there were strategies in place that would mitigate and reduce the likelihood of families and households losing their homes, losing their neighborhoods, losing businesses. As a result of the Charlotte 2040 plan. And we were created for a three-year period. And so our Commission began in January of 2022 and our Commission ends in December of 2024.
Justin Harlow: When this was created it was about saying, “Hey, we need a group that's recommending to our elected officials initiatives and recommendations that can add tools to our existing toolbox that we use around displacement and housing but also how can we help sharpen those same tools that we already have how can we help , you know, reignite and recapitalize programs.” And so we've made a series of recommendations, investment recommendations and program recommendations, to the city council over the past three years.
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Rebecca Hefner: There were several different ways that the community could be involved directly with the NEST Commission and in the development of the anti-displacement strategy. But one of the really fun things that the NEST Commission was able to do is when they developed the anti-displacement strategy they actually held a community workshop and had people come in and provide feedback on that strategy.
Angela Ambroise: And we were able to invite the community in so that we can hear from them, hear their questions, make sure that we were adequately bringing up the things that we were hearing in the NEST Commission amongst our discussions. It just helped us understand a lot of, sort of, where those missing pieces of some of the things that we felt like need to be, you know, advocated more. And so for me, I felt like it was a lot of feedback - some of the things that I knew but also just getting to hear some different perspectives.
Kim Graham: Being in a room of, you know, 30 plus neighborhood leaders from across the city all with different shared and lived experiences was really powerful, and I think a lot of the conversations that were had in that room that day went into shaping our final recommendations.
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Justin Harlow: Our first recommendation that came out of NEST Commission was late 2022 early 2023, getting into the budget process trying to do some tax relief. What kind of happened around that kind of 2019 time-frame, the county hadn't had a property revaluation since 2011 and so it was an 8-year gap. And all the growth that happened in the - in the you know - after the recession in the recovery in the early mid-2010s, led to this boom in Charlotte. But it also led to very high increases in property taxes, and we saw a lot of displacement of longtime homeowners. And so, to get ahead of that we recommended a property tax relief program that was for senior citizens, and the city adopted it. And in fact, they essentially took that $4.2 million investment and gave that to the county to allow the county to administer more tax relief for seniors. We also then later came and recommended a suite of programs later in 2023 - it was about eight or nine programs including reinvestment in the House Charlotte program, and a higher investment in it, calling it House Charlotte Plus, which is a home ownership assistance program that the city has.
Angela Ambroise: Turning House Charlotte plus into a program that will be, moving forward, not just for a year but for a permanent program to be implemented, that was huge for us. And if the city supports it moving that program throughout the city of Charlotte I think would be even better.
Justin Harlow: The creation of an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) pilot program.
Kim Graham: The Lay of the Land Workstream helped envision an idea of the city creating a program where it has pre-approved plans for ADUs and the city would come in and participate in the construction costs of the ADU. But then that ADU gets restricted for any number of years for affordability purposes. And so, the city bears all or part of the burden of constructing the ADU and then that homeowner maybe gets a little bit of income out of it - there's no windfall in here - but that ADU becomes part of the affordable housing solution.
Justin Harlow: Also the recapitalization of what we call the ARR program - the Acquisition Rehab and Resale program - where there might be property owners who own property, might have inherited that property, want to rehab it, want to repair it, and then, you know, either sell it and or rent it for at an affordable price point and get some City , some City help in subsidizing the cost for that rehab. And then of course the big one is the city Bond ask, the housing ask, for $100 million increasing the housing bond from $50 million to $100 was really crucial.
Angela Ambroise: NEST really pushed to increase the housing bond to 100 million and hopefully as we grow we push to put more money in that housing Bond. But I think it's going to help folks who traditionally could not provide affordable housing. Um the other thing was earmarking a percentage of the Housing Trust Fund for anti-displacement measures moving forward. And that's a big one because one thing we have to do is try to balance our growth amongst the Community that's already here and knowing that as Charlotte grows anti-displacement is going to grow - it's going to be on that table - and so moving forward recommending $25 million to be used for that I think was also instrumental.
Justin Harlow: I like to think that if NEST Commission didn't exist that there would not be a carve out of $25 million out of this $100 million fund. That was kind of a key sticking point for us really, it was, “hey let's not just keep doing things the same way we've been doing it.” We ask voters to approve Bond money, they approve it, we spend it through the Housing Trust Fund, we build some new housing, and then we do it all over again in two years. And while that's important, what it doesn't do is it doesn't put a focus on anything beyond new construction apartments for rent. This $25 million in anti-displacement can tackle home ownership issues where folks might have issues with down payment assistance, it can tackle property relief, it can tackle helping trying to prevent code enforcement violations to help prevent blight in neighborhoods which then leads to, you know, more gentrification as things get reinvested in. And so, we've been very intentional about saying, “hey, you know, it's not just about having the dollars to spend but it matters more how those dollars are spent.” And so the specific targeted programs we find can be really the best practice going forward for the city.
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Rebecca Hefner: So the next steps are to continue to maintain anti-displacement as a priority and to continue to implement the recommendations that have come from the NEST Commission. So much of the NEST Commission's recommendations made its way into the city's affordable housing funding policy. And so if the referendum passes on November 5th, then the city will have $100 million to put towards affordable housing initiatives over the next two years. And there are baked into that funding policy several of NEST recommendations around home ownership assistance and new production for home ownership, rehab and emergency repair for residents. So, we have a lot of work to do just getting those funds out the door to the people who need it the most. But in addition to that, the city has a major transformational opportunity coming up around the Strategic Mobility Plan and what that looks like with the development of the Red Line or parts of the Silver Line. What we'll be doing is working to ensure that as that development moves forward that the anti-displacement measures are put in place on the front end so that we canhelp people stay in place as our city transforms.
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