New Bern Avenue affordable housing development breaks ground

New Bern Avenue affordable housing development breaks ground

Raleigh developers, officials at the groundbreaking.Photo byCourtesy

By Alex Bass

Alex.bass@triangletribune.com

RALEIGH – The road named for North Carolina’s first capital city will foster residential harmony so more families may afford to call the current capital city home.

Harmony Housing Affordable Development, with attending public and private partners and civic leaders, held a groundbreaking Tuesday for New Bern Crossings, a 192-rental unit at 3600 New Bern Avenue.

Raleigh Mayor Pro Tem Corey Branch, who represents District C (including the New Bern Crossings site), discussed the unique arrangement by which the city owns the land which it has leased to Harmony.

“We’re not economically segregating our city, as well,” Branch said. “We’ll have affordability throughout the entire city to give people those choices and those options.”

Branch arrived at Tuesday’s ceremony from another groundbreaking. He said the North Raleigh area near Leesville Road has been rezoned to include affordable housing.

New Bern Crossings is within walking distance of Families Together, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to mitigating homelessness by helping families secure sustainable housing. Families Together will have a full-time supportive services coordinator and other part-time staff at New Bern Crossings, which will include common meeting and food preparation spaces.

“We couldn’t buy (the property),” Families Together Executive Director Jennifer Paul said. “But we were able to make those introductions and to advocate to the owner. We will coordinate that, so we learn from those people who are living here about what they need and what are their goals."

Resources for health care access, financial literacy, academic tutoring and even GED completion courses, Paul said, are among many programming possibilities. These resources are even more imperative in a county where student homelessness has doubled in 10 years, and is on a trajectory to increase by approximately 8,000 students during the 2024-25 academic cycle.

These outcomes, attending U.S. Representative Wiley Nickel, D-13, said, are at stake during the 2024 election. Nickel, who is not seeking re-election after his district was redrawn, is vice chair of the New Democrat Coalition's Affordable Housing Task Force.

“The work I’ve done moving federal funds has been because we had a fair match and voters got to make a choice," he said. “Gerrymandering robs voters of a choice in November. It leads to polarization.”

Mark Perlman, Wake County Equitable Housing and Community Development division director, said 40 private-based supportive housing vouchers will be included in the New Bern Crossings project, which will take approximately two years to complete.

“The point of this work," Perlman said, "is to create spaces that people can call home.”

Wake approves loan for Cottages of Idlewild

The Board of Commissioners approved up to $910,000 to the Raleigh Area Land Trust to support the construction of the Cottages of Idlewild in downtown Raleigh this fall. The development will offer a mix of 18 affordable rental and homeownership duplexes to low-income families operating under the community land trust model. Under this model, homebuyers own the home but not the land which means they only pay property taxes on the home value.

The units will be guaranteed affordable for 99 years. The home purchase assistance, below-market interest rate, low property taxes and the ability to pass the property to heirs will keep the cost of homeownership low.

“Our commitment extends beyond the present. We're preserving affordable land for future generations and fostering ongoing economic growth for homeowners,” Chair Shinica Thomas said. “I'm thrilled to witness the creation of generational wealth and equity, empowering low-income homeowners to thrive."