Boone and Watauga County need more affordable housing options.

I support the WNC Renters Help solutions platform, and urge our town's government leaders, developers, and citizens to consider the following actions:

1. Report unfair rental practices

In April 2020, the Town of Boone unanimously passed a resolution calling on the State Attorney General to investigate unfair and deceptive practices against renters in our town. The Attorney General Josh Stein has indicated that more reports of abusive rental practices (withheld security deposits, evictions without due process, hidden fees, etc.) are needed to trigger an investigation. By adding your story of unfair rental practices in Boone, you can help hold our town’s rental agencies and landlords accountable.

To submit a complaint, use the consumer complaints portal on the NC DOJ website here. The Boone Fair Housing Task Force has a step-by-step guide for submitting complaints on their Instagram.

2. Support new legislation to better classify unfair landlord practices

Many unfair practices witnessed in Boone are still legal under state law. At its June 2020 meeting, the Boone Town Council called for state law revisions to broaden the definition of unfair rental practices. Adding these provisions to state law will close loopholes that allow rental agencies to exploit and overcharge their tenants. These changes will reduce the cost of finding rental housing, and reduce situations where renters are unduly burdened or evicted due to circumstances beyond their control. Read the full town resolution text here. 

3. Update the R1 zoning code

The R1 zoning code states “no more than two unrelated persons may live in a single-family residence”, and the biggest percentage of residential areas in the Town of Boone are zoned as R1.

The R1 zoning code in its present form represents a de facto exclusionary housing law. While intentioned to create stable, long term residential neighborhoods, the manner in which the rule is interpreted has the unintended effect of reducing Boone's viable working class housing stock, by unnecessarily precluding individuals who cannot afford to live without roommates from suitable 3+ bedroom homes in town.

We recommend the Town of Boone takes action to increase the limit of unrelated family members allowed to occupy R1 housing to match the number of existing bedrooms on a property.

4. Form a Watauga County Renters Union

Renters unions are nonprofit citizen-controlled legal structures, designed to provide advocacy to renters. A renters union for Watauga County would fill functions that are currently borne entirely by individuals, such as negotiating with landlords claiming lease violations. In most cases, the cost of taking legal action against a landlord is higher than the monetary damages renters face, allowing landlords to take advantage of renters for lease violation and security deposit disputes. A Renters Union provides recourse for renters in these situations and holds landlords accountable to their tenants. A Renters Union may also fulfill other functions to support affordable housing, such as roommate matching and raising funds to prevent evictions and utility shut offs that are currently dependent on renters' time and resources, making it easier for individuals to find and remain in stable housing situations.

We recommend that citizens of Watauga County organize to form a new advocacy organization to support the needs of renters.

5. Form a High Country Affordable Housing Trust Fund

An Affordable Housing Trust Fund is an entity supporting the production, preservation, and rehabilitation of owner-occupied housing for low-income households as well as enhancing rental opportunities. It administers funding that is granted to developers by application, as well as other local development incentives, in conjunction with other government housing programs to meet affordable housing needs. These needs include construction of new buildings, rehabilitation of old buildings, education programs for homeownership/ foreclosure prevention/ etc, rentals, domestic violence shelters, and many more. An Affordable Housing Trust Fund was recommended in the Watauga County Citizen’s Plan, and past projects to initiate such a Fund have been supported in resolution by the Town of Boone, but the idea has never reached fruition.

We recommend citizens discuss with Town and County governments to revisit the Affordable Housing Trust Fund structure and address the challenges and barriers of past efforts, then develop a funding plan for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund involving allocations from government budgets, contributions from developers in exchange for development incentives, and state/federal grant funding.

Example: East Tennesse Affordable Housing Trust Fund

6. Watauga County Community Land Trust

Community Land Trusts are public-private partnerships administered by a nonprofit to purchase land parcels to be occupied by low-income renters and homeowners. The cost of renting and purchasing Community Land Trust units is reduced by nonprofit funding and covenants to cap the sales price of homes and/or monthly rental costs. Community Land Trusts are administered differently in different communities, but have overall been shown to contribute to a permanent stock of housing for low-income and working class residents by removing land parcels from the speculative housing market.

Community Land Trusts can take many years to develop, but offer a documented, financially-sustainable solution to create and conserve affordable housing in growing communities like ours.

We recommend that citizens begin discussing with local government entities, affordable housing nonprofits, and citizens about how a Community Land Trust in Watauga County could be implemented. Citizens, developers, and the local government can then raise funds via government budget allocations, grant funding, partnership with developers, and outside Community Land Trust advocacy groups to fund the entity’s initial formation and land purchases.

7. Adopt form-based coding in new neighborhoods

A form-based code is a land development regulation that fosters predictable built results and a high quality public realm by using physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for the code. A form-based code is a regulation, not a mere guideline, adopted into city, town, or county law. A form-based code offers a powerful alternative to conventional zoning regulation.

Form-based codes address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks. The regulations and standards in form-based codes are presented in both words and clearly drawn diagrams and other visuals. They are keyed to a regulating plan that designates the appropriate form and scale (and therefore, character) of development, rather than only distinctions in land-use types.

We recommend citizens discuss with Town and County planning committees to explore new developing areas in Boone as places to implement form-based coding. We encourage local governments to enact policy that promotes mixed-use and mixed-income development that remains aesthetically unified and lends itself to the creation of complete neighborhoods in which citizens can live, work, and enjoy their surroundings.

This list is not complete or exclusive, but provides several strategies that could lead to more sustainable, affordable housing. Enacting these solutions will take time, but needs to begin as soon as possible to reverse the erosion of affordable living in our community.