http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/apps/ ... 00337/1151

Forum tackles range of local housing issues

“Fair-market rent” for a two-bedroom unit in Henderson County: $596 per month according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That includes $475 for rent $121 for utilities. That figure is based on the 40th percentile, meaning out of 100 rentals, 39 will cost less but 60 will cost more, said Sheryl Fortune, Section 8 housing director for Western Carolina Community Action. A full-time worker must earn $11.40 per hour, just under $24,000 per year, to afford housing at that rate, Fortune said. About 29 percent of households in Henderson County earn less than $25,000 per year, according to Noelle McKay of Housing Assistance Corp. WCCA has 190 families on a waiting list for subsidized housing, compared to nearly 600 last year. The average home price in Henderson County was $221,861 last year. “It takes an annual income of nearly $70,000 to support a mortgage that large,” Fortune said. Suggestions for solving the affordable housing dilemma: Continue federal funding for the Community Development Block Grant Program, which provides funds to extend utilities to projects such as affordable housing for seniors at former East Flat Rock School building. The CDBG program has been the target of federal cuts in recent years. The draft Henderson County Land Development Code will include “density bonuses.” These allow developers who build at least 25 percent affordable units to build 25 percent more units in areas where utilities are available, Page said. Increase funding for North Carolina’s affordable housing trust fund. Use funds from the state’s scattered site rehabilitation program. The program provides about $400,000 per year for Henderson County, money that went to rehabilitate nine homes each in 2002 and last year, Page said. Reduce government fees for developers and nonprofits building affordable housing.

The Rev. Juan Unda says he has seen single wide trailers with 10 to 12 people living in them in Henderson County, and each person paying $45 per week.

Unda, a counselor for the Housing Assistance Corp, said the county's lack of a minimum housing code and affordable housing are particularly hard on Latino immigrants. Such residents are frequently exploited because they are new to the area, unfamiliar with the system and unlikely to complain.

"We need to have regulations but we also need to have a conscience," Unda told about 60 people gathered for the League of Women Voters forum on housing issues. "We need to be able to put ourselves in our neighbors' shoes and fight against these (predatory renting practices)."

Henderson County is now drafting a minimum housing code, said Nippy Page, housing planner, and Judy Francis, planning director.

The code as drafted will be complaint driven, rather than requiring mandatory inspections of all rental structures in the county, Page said.

But Robin Merrell, an attorney who represents tenants for Pisgah Legal Services, said she believes a complaint-driven code will not provide much help for Hispanic residents who are afraid to complain.

"People who are not in this country legally are less likely to complain," she said.

Merrell said low-income renters are also unikely to complain about poor housing conditions because of weaknesses in North Carolina's retalitory eviction laws. The law offers protections for renters who have leases and are up to date on their rent, but not for those who rent month-to-month, as many low income residents do.

An early draft of the housing code did not include trailers, which may be considered personal rather than real property. But the current draft would apply to all residential dwellings, including mobile homes, Page said.

Page showed a slide show of burned-out houses, dilapidated trailers and trash-filled yards to illustrate the need for a minimum housing code in Henderson County. The code would help assure rental housing meets certain minimum standards, such as having working plumbing and heating and being free of hazards.

"The beauty of a minimum housing code is it provides a single source of contacts for complaints....and staff can refer these complaints," she said.

The code will include a process to condemn substandard housing, but that does not mean all condemned structures would have to be demolished, Page said. Some can be repaired and made habitable again.

In Buncombe County, which passed a minimum housing code several years ago, 99 percent of the buildings demolished under the code were vacant, said Natilie Berry, Henderson County zoning administrator and former enforcement officer for Buncombe's housing code. The same is true in Hendersonville, which has also has a housing code, Page said.

The Henderson County legal staff is now reviewing the draft housing code, said Francis, the planning director. The proposal should be ready to go before the Board of Commissioners this summer. "I think we are going to see a minimum housing code here in the next year," County Commissioner Chuck McGrady said following the forum at county offices.

McGrady and Laurel Park Mayor Henry Johnson were the only elected officials to attend the forum.