Kelly Kenoyer

5 days ago | whqr.org | Kelly Kenoyer

The city has officially decided to spend federal Covid-relief funding on a project aimed at housing the lowest-income residents in Wilmington. It passed unanimously, but not without some questions from one council member. The American Rescue Plan Act HOME funds include $2.5 million aimed at sheltering the homeless and other qualifying populations. After a request for proposals last year, the majority of the funding — $2.1 million — is set to go to one project by the Good Shepherd Center (GSC).

6 days ago | whqr.org | Kelly Kenoyer

Council still has another work session and a public hearing before it’ll take its budget to a vote, but the main takeaway from this year’s budget is some belt-tightening to keep taxes relatively low. The plan for next year is a $306 million budget. With the recent property reassessment, properties are up 53% in value across the city. With that, the proposed tax rate is down 14 cents from 42.25 cents to 28.25 cents — which is 1/10th of a cent higher than net neutral.

1 week ago | whqr.org | Kelly Kenoyer

Advocates are concerned that several bills moving ahead in the North Carolina General Assembly will criminalize homelessness and make their jobs even harder. The Cicero Institute was founded by venture capitalist and tech billionaire Joe Lonsdale, and focuses on issues like regulatory reform and adding performance-based funding into the prison and parole systems. But the Texas-based institute is perhaps best known for its policies on homelessness.

1 week ago | whqr.org | Kelly Kenoyer

The property in question is an undeveloped 60 acre land track located at 3990 Independence Boulevard, known as the Flossie Bryan Tract, after the original owner. That owner had gifted the county 2/3rds of the property with the intent to create a park. The county was originally torn between its fiduciary duties and the wishes of the original owner. But, after a year or more or work, the county commission has voted unanimously to purchase the last 1/3rd of the property for a cost of $3.8 million.

1 week ago | whqr.org | Kelly Kenoyer

At a joint meeting between the county commission and the planning board, officials heard presentations from several consultants about the state of play in New Hanover County. Mollie Fitzpatrick from Root Policy presented on housing, and it’s a dire situation: the county is still short more than 7,000 units for rent, and that’s just for those who earn below 50% AMI, or average median income, of around $36,000. The market for buying a home isn’t much better.