How Raleigh and Wake County plan to save thousands of affordable housing units

A new multimillion fund will make it easier to preserve affordable housing throughout Wake County.

County and city leaders on Wednesday officially launched a $61.5 million affordable housing preservation fund that includes monetary support from financial institutions.

This new loan fund is “truly a game changer,” said Wake County Commissioner Chair Sig Hutchinson.

“We all know that, like so many other places, affordable housing is in crisis,” he said. “And getting people in the appropriate homes at the right time is essential for all of our communities to remain healthy. And, to that end, we can’t wait here in Wake County.”

Since 2010, Wake County has lost nearly 60% of its housing units with rents under $750 per month.

“Right now, we’re losing affordable units much faster than we’re adding new ones,” said Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. “We want to turn that around. To do that, we need to preserve existing affordable housing like the historic Grosvenor Gardens apartments that the city is helping CASA acquire and preserve. This fund is exactly how we want to be investing our local housing dollars.”

The fund started with $10.5 million from Wake County in October 2021 followed by $4 million from the city of Raleigh. The local governments picked Self-Help Ventures Fund, a Durham-based nonprofit financial institution, to oversee the fund.

With the help of three banks, Truist, First Horizon and Wells Fargo, the fund has grown to $61.5 million and has officially launched.

The fund includes two different loan options:

• A short-term revolving loan to help acquire properties to give developers time to obtain long-term support financing since financing for affordable housing can be more difficult to secure.

• A longer-term permanent financing loan to acquire and rehabilitate property specifically targeted toward “naturally occurring affordable housing.”

The loan fund is expected to preserve more than 3,000 affordable units over the next 15 years.

People or groups who wish to donate to the fund or to learn about receiving funding can go to wakegov.com/preservationfund.