Whether you work in community or economic development, there has always been pressure to measure your success. CED professionals are very familiar with having to explain what type of impact they hope to have with their initiatives.  It is even harder to document success. Evidence-based decision-maki … Continued

The federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) established Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (“FRF”), which will be distributed to state and local governments for the purpose of responding “to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) or … Continued

In 2017, a CED blog post asked if wages in different parts of the state were sufficient to sustain a person who wants to live and work there. For example, in 2016, nursing assistants in Goldsboro earned $11.83 an hour (median wage) for a mean annual salary of $24,610. Things have improved in terms o … Continued

How much should North Carolina families pay for housing? Affordable housing experts generally agree that housing costs should not exceed 30% of a household’s annual income. This payment standard is applied to nearly every major housing program, including public housing, housing choice vouchers, and … Continued

Investing in green space and park creation has enormous benefits, from bolstering community wellness, to reversing historic disinvestment, and in raising surrounding property values. While care should be taken to avoid the park-driven gentrification that has accompanied many of the recent high-profi … Continued

In 2018, nearly one in five “starter homes” – or houses priced at the bottom third of the local market – were bought by investors rather than prospective homeowners. While investors take many forms such as “flippers” or owners that turn properties into Airbnbs, a growing cohort of companies are resh … Continued

Common interest communities and homeowners associations (HOAs) – love them or leave them, they have become quite common. The Foundation for Community Association Research, which supports the Community Associations Institute, found that 61 percent of new housing built for sale is located within a com … Continued

It is never too soon to start thinking about recovery, even in the midst of the pandemic. As communities look toward recovery, leaders are wrestling with how to establish a legally permissible aid program to assist small businesses with reopening. Many local governments established small business lo … Continued

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program has the power to transform communities. Since 1995, the federal program has assessed over 30,000 properties and designated 92,000 acres for anticipated reuse. North Carolina has been working in tandem under state statute since 1997, and has i … Continued

While COVID-19 is changing many facets of our world, one thing that seems unlikely to change is the proliferation of short-term rentals (e.g. Airbnb, VRBO, etc). With current interest in local travel outstripping 2019, pre-existing questions around if and how to regulate these businesses are only go … Continued