GREENSBORO, N.C (WGHP) — The struggle continues for Greensboro housing officials to keep up with the growing demand for affordable housing in Greensboro.
Affordable Housing Management in Greensboro has some projects in the works to help get more people into these homes and keep them affordable.
Their latest project is happening at Southwoods Apartments on Columbus Street. It’s the oldest property that AHM currently has. It was built about 25 years ago, and it is in need of some updates.
“Southwoods is a very unique property. It’s all studio apartments,” said David Levy, the executive director at AHM.
It has a total of 59 units, and each one will get some updates, including plumbing, air conditioning and heating as well as kitchen and bathroom fixtures. All of those updates make the apartments even more affordable.
“The rents to start out here will only be $485, and utility bill will probably run around $40. It had been around $60 or $70, but with the improvements we are making, we will probably see a $20-$30 a month savings for the residents,” Levy said.
The outside of the buildings will also have updated siding, roofs, windows and doors, and all of it was made possible by funds from the city of Greensboro, other community partners and North Carolina tax credits.
“Fortunately, the city and the state and the federal government … have stepped up, realizing that they need to provide subsidy to create affordable housing like this, but the need seems to have gotten worse,” Levy said.
AHM says updating the current properties is just as important as building new ones, and they have plans to rehabilitate another older property soon.
“We want to preserve the older properties that are affordable. We already have them, so it does make it a little easier than finding land, getting it rezoned, etc.,” Levy said.
AHM is working to get additional North Carolina tax credits to help fund new affordable housing properties in Greensboro, totaling about 100 units.
But it will be a while before anything breaks ground. it’s precious time they don’t have to spare.
“We manage 10 properties right now, and all but one is not even taking applications because we have waitlists everywhere,” Levy said.
In about three months, they will start to accept applications for new residents at Southwoods. AHM will be moving current tenants around while they work on one building at a time. They expect all the buildings to be updated by the end of 2024.
