North Carolina

I travelled down to North Carolina over the weekend to visit Mark Shelburne and the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. I am very grateful for the immense hospitality Mark and his colleagues showed me. I arrived on Saturday evening. Mark picked me up from the station, took me out for an evening meal and brought me to my hotel. On Sunday commencing at 8.15am Mark and Rus also from the NCHFA picked me up from the station and we went for a Southern breakfast including bacon and biscuits and gritts at the Cracker Barrel, a famous southern food outlet. We visited a number of recently completed projects and one under construction.

Rus is the NCFHA's building compliance officer. He inspects the properties on site to make sure that they are built correctly and to the agency's standards. The agency have their building requirements a little like the HCA. These standards include quality and design standards. The agency will not allow payment of tax credits until these standards are met. Rus had quiet a few stories of some of the issues he has had to deal with in respect of contractor non compliance. This sounds so familiar.

The design standards were interesting. NCHFA like the urban FHA's standard encourages apartments. Typically Eightplexes - 8 apartments leading from one central core. The density standard in Raleigh is very low. Houses in the central area of Raleigh are often located within 1/4 of an acre plots and even larger plots in the suburbs. In the very centre of Raleigh the density increases and there are historic warehouse and tower blocks with a mix of commercial and residential apartments.
In the parts of the US I have visited affordable housing is usually in the form of apartments and this is accepted as the normal standard.

The apartments we visited were much larger in terms of floor area than their UK equivalents. a 2 bedroom apartment has a floor area of 890sq feet, compared with the UK between 570 to 670 sq feet. Also ceiling heights were much higher at over 8 feet. Developments are usually 50 or more dwellings and have an office and residents lounge as well as a play ground with play equipment and a barbecue (which is essential to Southern life).

This visit was followed by lunch with Martha from the Department of Health and Human Services. Martha deals with people with support needs and took me through the operation of the State's system and how this interacts with the affordable housing delivery system. The State had recently had a notice from the Ministry of Justice saying that the State had to improve its access to housing for people with support needs and disabilities. This has created new obligations on the state which it has to fund. This is interesting and quiet different to the way in which the UK system works.

In the evening I was invited to dinner with Carley Ruff of the North Carolina Affordable Housing Coalition, Will and Mark who are officers of the NCHFA and one of their Board members, Gene Davis. I was introduced to more Southern Food. The evening and the food was very enjoyable.

The following morning I visited the agency and met with the compliance staff of which there are 15. This staff group visit and inspect all of North Carolina's affordable housing stock every 1 or 3 years. 1 year if there is agency lending gone into the project, 3 if it is a straight LIHTC investment. The meeting was very illuminating. Essentially every affordable housing property in the state will be inspected about 7 times per year as the investor and syndicator will visit once per year and the operator 4 times per year.