The approval of a rezoning application on Martin Luther King Boulevard highlights a growing need for affordable housing in Chapel Hill and raises concerns about the ability of property owners to displace low-income residents.
Chapel Hill’s 1200 MLK project paves the way for a new gas station, convenience store and a 100,000 square foot self-storage facility while protecting an existing mobile home park.
Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said if the rezoning application was denied, the developer, Stackhouse Properties, told the council they would have closed the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park – effectively displacing 73 families.
“We have no way to force them, or anyone, to keep a mobile home park open,” Hemminger said. “We were able to negotiate such that the residents there – the 73 families and 65 children in those families – were able to have a rent freeze for the next three years and a slight percentage market increase and get annual leases.”
Hemminger said these rent freezes will help to keep families in their homes as rental rates continue to rise. According to the Town of Chapel Hill’s latest Affordable Housing Quarterly Report, rental rates have increased by 20 percent since 2014 with a 28 percent rise in home values.
The controversy surrounding the 1200 MLK project, predominantly stemming from the threat of closure for the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park, highlighted a need for more affordable housing in the area. Affordable housing in Chapel Hill is housing that costs no more than 30 percent of a household’s income. Chapel Hill currently has more than 1,100 affordable housing units.
Hemminger said the town is working with families, like those living in the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park, on how to buy a new type of house if home ownership is their goal.
“Habitat has an opportunity coming up,” Hemminger said. “We do at 2200 Homestead. There will be some other affordable housing options and we’re going to directly go in and talk to families in these communities to say, ‘what pathway can we help you [with] in case your property does come under the same scenario [as 1200 MLK].”
For the 2021 fiscal year, more than $6 million dollars have been budgeted for emergency housing strategies in Chapel Hill. From July to December of 2020, the town provided emergency housing assistance to 704 households.
At their meeting last week, Hemminger said the town council received an affordable housing update – which shows an increase in opportunities in the next few years.
“We’re going to have a significant number of new, affordable housing because we’ve been on a trajectory to get there,” Hemminger said. “We’ve got very strategic, we’ve planned it, we’ve pulled the bond money, we’ve partnered with other groups to make that bond money go further – so we’re going to have more affordable opportunities and we’re going to reach out to individuals in these mobile home parks to see what pathway they can take. So that they’re not beholden to someone that owns the land underneath them.”
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