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(WGHP) — If you’ve tried to buy or rent a home or apartment in the Triad, you’ve seen the prices are unprecedented.

“Having low income. Everything is based like $700, $800, $900, and you’re only working with $760,“ James Harris said.

Harris was on the search for affordable housing after experiencing a hardship that forced him to live in a shelter.

With his monthly income less than the average cost of rent, it left him at a disadvantage.

“You have to have personal things; you have to eat. It doesn’t leave you with much,” he said.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult trying to find affordable housing for those experiencing homelessness in the community,” Shanna Reece said.

Shanna Reece is the Executive Director of the nonprofit The Servant Center. It’s one of 14 community partners working with the City of Greensboro’s Neighborhood Development Department. The mission is to serve those who are the hardest to serve.

“We’re in the process of developing a housing preservation loan fund, which goes a long way to kind of stabilizing properties, and communities. That’s targeted to be about a $30 million loan pool,” said Michelle Kennedy, director of NDD.

She says Greensboro City Council members will consider the city’s first permanent housing development Monday night. A plane that would convert the Regency Inn and Suites on North O. Henry Boulevard, into affordable housing

“That will be 74 units of affordable housing to people transitioning out of homelessness,” Kennedy said.

It’s renovations and projects like those that help people like a Harris find a place to call home.

“I love it. Instead of living at a shelter, with 1,000 people. You put a pencil on your bed, and it’s gone. You have your own house you can put a pencil on your kitchen table, and you come back home and it’s still there, it means a lot,” Harris said.

The projects are funded through a combination of state, federal, local, and private funds.

If you are interested in donating to the cause, you can donate directly to one of the 14 community partners.

Central Carolina Health Network
Community Housing Solutions
Family Service of the Piedmont
Greensboro Housing Coalition
Greensboro Landlord Association
Greensboro Urban Ministry
Housing Consultants Group
Interactive Resources Center
Salvation Army of Greensboro
The Servant Center
Youth Focus – Act Together
YWCA of Greensboro
Room at the Inn Inc.
UNCG – Center for Housing and
Community Studies