We are working in the following ways to accomplish important community objectives:
- Holding our criminal justice system accountable. Fed up with the revolving door of our justice system, our communities recently held a meeting with Chapel Hill and Carrboro police chiefs, the magistrate, DA and District Court Judge to push them to get drug dealers off the streets. Within a week of this meeting, bonds for repeat drug dealers rose from $500 to $25,000.
- Beating investors at their own game. Neighbors United leaders are convincing property owners to sell their homes to EmPOWERment, Inc. to be renovated and resold to first-time homebuyers; in other cases leaders are convincing builders to develop properties for our families at lower prices.
- Combating gentrification through zoning. Ultimately, we have to make it harder for investors to buy our neighborhoods. The Northside Community has developed a new overlay zone that will limit the number of unrelated people living in the same household. The goal is to limit the profitability of rental housing and thereby curtail the ability of investors to convert our neighborhoods into off-campus dorms.
- Increasing public investment in affordable housing. Historically, our local governments have committed almost no local funds for affordable housing. Last spring, EmPOWERment, Inc. led a group of affordable housing advocates in convincing the Orange County Commissioners to create a Housing Trust Fund capitalized by local property taxes. The Housing Trust Fund commits approximately $250,000 a year for affordable housing development. The battle is not over. We are pushing the County to increase the amount to $750,000 a year, the amount originally requested.