Affordable Housing

Finding a decent place to live at a price local families can afford is beyond the reach of many in Haywood County.

Housing costs are affected by many factors — construction costs, interest rates, available land, infrastructure and the overall supply of homes and apartments.

There isn’t one simple solution. Here’s actions my campaign has taken through a group of 18 individuals and groups interested in addressing this challenge.

Here’s what we’ve done so far.

• Met with housing organizations, community college leaders, builders and experts beyond Haywood to examine options.
• Explored construction methods that aren’t commonly used here, including insulated concrete forms, 3-D concrete printing, panelized construction and other approaches that could potentially reduce costs or construction time.
• Compiled a list of the vacant lots in Waynesville, Canton and Clyde where infill housing could perhaps be built more cheaply compared to providing new infrastructure or taking farmland out of production.
• Visiting housing developments in neighboring communities to learn how they are creating deeply affordable housing.
• Government can’t solve the housing problem by itself. Neither can nonprofits, builders or private citizens. But they can work together.

With additional federal disaster-recovery resources coming into Western North Carolina, local housing organizations already doing this work and people willing to explore new approaches, we have an opportunity to increase the supply of intentionally affordable housing that working people, families and older residents can afford.

The challenge is significant, but so is the number of people willing to work on it. Again, nothing about this effort has placed any additional burden on county taxpayers.