(The Center Square) – With housing affordability likely to be a big issue with voters in the upcoming midterm elections, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein on Tuesday announced the appointment of a senior advisor for housing policy.
Janneke Ratcliffe is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and a national leader on housing policy, the governor said. Stein also issued an executive order aimed at increasing coordination of state agencies, local governments, builders and other groups on housing affordability.
“We have a responsibility to lower costs for families whenever we can,” the first-term Democrat said. “That clearly includes the family’s largest monthly expense: housing.”
The executive order will make it easier to build more affordable housing across North Carolina, Ratcliffe said Tuesday.
“We need mutli-generational housing like backyard cottages,” she said. “We need starter homes so that our young households can put down roots right here in our communities. And we need more innovation, from factory-built housing, for example.”
More than 40,000 families are on the waiting list for subsidized housing, Ratcliffe said.
“The lack of housing that people can afford is a major contributor to homelessness,” she said.
North Carolina’s popularity with businesses and people moving here has also put a strain on housing, Stein said.
The governor said many markets are unaffordable even for the workers who built the homes.
“They can build the homes, they just can’t afford to live in the homes they built,” he said. “To create meaningful opportunities for every North Carolinian to succeed, we must significantly increase the numbers of homes and housing units that we build each year.”
With the state facing a “serious shortage” of construction workers, the state needs to increase its investment in workforce training, the governor added.
Don Bryson, CEO of the nonprofit John Locke Foundation, agrees with Stein.
“Governor Stein is right to focus attention on North Carolina’s housing affordability crisis,” Bryson told The Center Square. “The best way to make housing more affordable is straightforward: make it easier to build more homes.”
That could be accomplished through reducing zoning restrictions, allowing more starter homes and accessory dwelling units, and building more housing closer to where people work, Bryson said.
“Subsidies may help some families at the margins, but sustainable affordability comes from abundance,” he said.
