HIGH POINT — The topic of how to produce more housing to accommodate the region’s future job growth took front and center at the annual State of the City event Wednesday.
With major projects promised at Piedmont Triad International Airport and companies pledging to expand in High Point, the region will need an infusion of residential units for sale and rent.
“Workforce housing is a term that describes all the folks that will be there providing the labor needed to activate these businesses,” said Wynnefield Properties President Craig Stone.
His firm is one of the few that develops below-market rental housing in High Point and elsewhere in the state.
Stone was part of a panel discussion on the topic at the event, which was put on by Business High Point-Chamber of Commerce and hosted by High Point University.
City Manager Tasha Logan Ford said a study found that “about 80% of our workforce cannot afford housing. When we think about the cost of housing units, salaries just have not kept pace.”
She said the city is trying to facilitate more housing supply in several ways, including by revising its development ordinance regulations to enable higher-density development and giving its planning board authority to approve projects.
“That saves a tremendous amount of time for our developers and cuts down on the timeline it takes to bring those projects online,” Logan Ford said.
Stone’s firm uses federal tax-credit subsidies to cover part of its development costs.
“The challenges and barriers we have today are financial feasibility. One of these communities can take more than two years to build,” he said. “Through that time, financing can change.”
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PAT KIMBROUGH, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.