Category: Featured Articles
Emergency Home Repair Loans: Local Government as Financial Bridge
While the response to Hurricane Helene continues, local governments are looking ahead to the long road to recovery. In a report issued by the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM), Hurricane Helene Recovery Recommendations: Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment, OSBM notes th … Read more
After the Storm: Summary Ejectment and Assistance Programs in North Carolina
Hurricane Helene caused historic flooding in Western North Carolina, destroying or damaging approximately 126,000 residential properties. Many of those properties were occupied by tenants who now find themselves in unfit or uninhabitable properties. The owners of affected rental properties face the … Read more
Expanding Opportunity for Low-Wage Workers through Systems Alignment
Low wage workers are core to the U.S. economy and often serve in vital front-line occupations related to childcare, food service, retail, personal services, transportation, and agriculture. Women and people of color, especially Black and Hispanic residents, comprise a large portion of the low-wage w … Read more
Conveying property to housing organization for low- and moderate-income homeownership
It is not uncommon for charitable housing organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, to request land from local governments with the intent of developing housing on the property and then selling it to low- and moderate-income homebuyers. Unfortunately, North Carolina local governments sometimes co … Read more
Property Tax Exemptions for Community & Economic Development
North Carolina property tax law, nicknamed the Machinery Act, contains many dozens of full or partial exemptions for property as diverse as free drug samples, uranium 233, and Loyal Order of the Moose clubhouses. This blog post attempts to identify which of these property tax breaks that might be re … Read more
The Primacy of Social Capital for Community Resilience
Hurricanes. Floods. Wildfires. Tornados. Earthquakes. Droughts. Blizzards. Ice storms. Infectious disease outbreaks. Pandemics. Industrial accidents. Chemical spills. Structural collapse. Transportation accidents. Grid failure. Water contamination. Large-scale layoffs. Factory closures. Recession. H … Read more
CED through Local and Regional Food Systems: The Latest Resources
In the past year, activity around local food systems increased dramatically. Government has been involved in supporting food systems for decades, but primarily through programs adopted at the federal level to both promote food production and protect the health of consumers. But having government wor … Read more
How Are Economic Developers Partnering to Solve Workforce Challenges?
To attract, retain and expand businesses in today’s tight labor market, economic development organizations (EDOs) are becoming more involved than ever in partnerships to help meet employers’ talent pipeline and training needs. What do those partnerships look like? Effective Economic Development Role … Read more
Remote workers: When do they count for local economic development incentives?
“Remote work is here to stay,” says a 2022 Forbes article. Research by McKinsey & Company released in June 2022 reveals that 58 percent of Americans reported having the opportunity to work from home “at least one day a week,” and 35 percent had the option to work from home “five days a week.” Ac … Read more
Local Government Support for Privately Owned Affordable Housing
By most accounts, the need for affordable housing across North Carolina is massive. According to 2019 census data, over a million North Carolina households are “cost burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Almost half of those are “severely cost burdened,” meaning the … Read more