More than one million households in North Carolina are housing cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. This includes nearly one in five homeowners and almost half of the state’s renters. With limited supply, rising costs, and other issues, meeting local needs for safe, accessible, and affordable housing is a challenge for community leaders.

Meeting this challenge is critical for the state.

North Carolina is the third-fastest growing state in the country, with more than 300,000 people moving from out-of-state each year. Access to affordable housing is critical to economic development; without a reliable, local workforce, communities may struggle to attract employers.

Rising housing costs leave North Carolinians with less money available to pay for other needs like food, transportation, childcare, and more. In 2022, the U.S. median “residual income” (amount a household has left over after housing costs) hit a record low of $310/month.

The availability of safe, quality housing affects health outcomes. Public health experts say that your zip code, not your genetic code, is the most important predictor of long-term health.

Any or all of these factors can contribute to housing needs in our state’s communities. But each community also brings its own assets and resources that can be leveraged to meet this challenge.

Carolina Across 100 is launching an 18-month program supporting a group of community collaboratives seeking to improve access to and availability of affordable housing options in North Carolina.

Participating communities will emerge from the eighteen-month program with a deeper understanding of housing issues in their local contexts, tools to improve community conversations around housing needs, maps of local partners and assets, and increased knowledge and capacity to implement strategies for improving housing affordability. Program learnings will be shared publicly to help additional communities in North Carolina address their housing needs.

Carolina Across 100 will support teams with the following:

that strengthen their existing programs and services, including data tools and evidence-informed strategies to promote affordable housing

through five peer-learning forums and regular webinars during which teams will develop their goals, make implementation plans, and collaborate across sectors to work toward their goals effectively

from experts on affordable housing and cross-sector community collaboration led by Carolina Across 100, the Development Finance Initiative, and other experts

on a limited basis to support project management and implementation, as well as cover costs associated with participation in the program

A panel of Carolina Across 100 representatives will select a cohort of communities to participate in the 18-month program. Communities may apply as individual county teams, a municipal county partnership, or a multi-county collaborative. Teams will be selected based on the following criteria: 

Note: The selection panel will prioritize applicants from counties that have not yet participated in any prior Carolina Across 100 programs. To see which counties have previously participated in Carolina Across 100, please view this map.  

After selection for the program, the core team identified in the application will identify the full community team (local collaborative). The composition of these teams can vary from community to community; however, we expect that each collaborative will include stakeholders from a diverse set of sectors, all committed to active participation in the program. As part of the program, Carolina Across 100 will support teams in identifying additional stakeholders to participate. Carolina Across 100 strongly recommends that at least one local government entity (municipality or county) be represented on each core team.

Each community collaborative must be prepared to meet regularly over the course of the program to develop and implement a clear strategy that (1) leverages existing assets and activities, (2) increases the availability, quality, and alignment of community resources for affordable housing, and (3) addresses barriers to meeting community housing needs, especially for more vulnerable subpopulations.

Participating communities will benefit from the expertise of UNC faculty and staff who specialize in housing and related issues. The Development Finance Initiative will be our primary subject matter expert for this endeavor.

DFI is a program of the UNC School of Government that partners with local governments to attract private investment for transformative projects by providing specialized finance and development expertise. Since its founding in 2011, DFI has partnered with over 200 communities to attract investment for development projects that accomplish local goals. In addition to assisting communities with downtown revitalization, neighborhood development, historic adaptive reuse, and other locally defined interests, DFI has worked with urban, suburban, and rural communities to provide technical assistance related to the development of housing for low- and moderate-income households. DFI’s technical assistance includes housing needs assessments, tailored educational workshops, identification of sites appropriate for affordable housing development, and pre-development feasibility analysis, as well as assisting local governments with the recruitment and identification of qualified private development partners.

In addition to DFI, this program will engage other UNC faculty, staff, and students from Kenan-Flagler Business School, School of Medicine, School of Government, Dept. of City and Regional Planning, and more.