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A Housing Trust Fund Back On The Table? Endowment Studying It

By Cece Nunn, posted Jun 27, 2024
New Hanover Community Endowment board chair Bill Cameron, vice chair Shannon Winslow and Lakesha McDay, executive vice president of programs and operations, answer questions June 26 during a public meeting. (Photo by Cece Nunn)
The more than $1 billion New Hanover Community Endowment is picking up an affordable housing idea that’s been considered but never created by local officials: a housing trust fund.  

“In our community, it has been discussed for probably about 15 to 20 years of what a fund might look like, and so much groundwork has been laid around what a Housing Trust Fund might look like in our community … so we leaned in,” said Terri Burhans, network officer for the endowment, who leads the organization’s affordable housing efforts. “We heard what our housing community had to say, and over the next few months, we'll be studying what a fund might look like to deploy some low-cost capital into the community to address some of the gaps that we're seeing in really developing those properties.”

Burhans talked about the endowment’s affordable housing efforts during a public meeting hosted by the endowment Wednesday night. Officials chose Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW) as the session's location to highlight GLOW as a grant recipient.

They announced an $8.7 million grant for New Hanover County Schools in addition to sharing more about the endowment's affordable housing strategy.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Characteristics of housing trust funds can vary, but in many cases, they’re established by governments to provide an ongoing source of money to increase a community’s affordable housing stock. City of Wilmington and New Hanover County leaders have discussed the formation of a trust fund in the past, but it hasn't gained traction.

The New Hanover Community Endowment’s trust fund efforts align with one of the three lanes that groups can use to pursue endowment grants: capital, Burhans said. Stabilization and production are the other two lanes in a $19 million affordable housing strategy officials announced in May. The announcement came after housing advocates were disappointed by the lack of affordable housing grants in a separate, $53 million outlay the endowment revealed in December.

Explaining the housing stabilization category at Wednesday’s meeting, Burhans said, “What we've heard from our housing community is that we need some relief. With the rising cost of building materials, with the rising cost of land and the immense need that we're seeing in our community, we need some general operating (funds), some core support.”

Stabilization also means making sure those who are housed in affordable units can stay that way, she said.

The production lane, Burhans said, aims “to help catalyze those products that are already in the pipeline and really give them a shot in the arm to move forward.”

The New Hanover Community Endowment was created from the sale of New Hanover Regional Medical Center, previously owned by New Hanover County, to Novant Health three years ago.

LITERACY FACILITATORS
Lakesha McDay, the endowment’s executive vice president of programs and operations, announced during the meeting Wednesday that the endwoment's board this month approved an $8.7 million, three-year grant to New Hanover County Schools. The money will support the hiring of 26 literacy facilitators, McDay said.

"This literacy facilitator model is an innovative approach that directly aligns with our education pillar at the endowment, and more specifically, our 2023 through 2025 strategic plan," she said. "In the coming weeks, we will share more information as it still has to go through a process."

The New Hanover County School Board is expected to consider the grant for a
vote at its July meeting, endowment officials said.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
The endowment has remained under scrutiny during its startup, evidenced by some of the questions posed by the public at Wednesday’s meeting. Endowment board chair Bill Cameron, vice chair Shannon Winslow, McDay and Burhans provided answers.

One of the written questions was, "What steps will the New Hanover Community Endowment Board take to insist on diversity of members and staff?"

Winslow said, “Our board – we certainly understand diversity, and we believe that diversity does make us stronger.” She said the board is diverse in a variety of ways, including professional experience, “lived experiences” and race.

Cameron said, “I'll just remind the public that there are 13 board members. The board is responsible for two. The New Hanover County (Board of) Commissioners is responsible for five, and the hospital board is responsible for six. I have appeared before those bodies a number of times, and every opportunity that I've had to appear before them I have spoken to them about the desire for a diverse board. And I think it's very fair to say it would be nice for other people in the community to suggest that to them as well. 

“But we do not control 11 appointments. We only control two.”

In another written query, Harper Peterson asked about the workings of the endowment without its former president and CEO William Buster, whose resignation was announced in February. A former Wilmington mayor and former state Senator, Peterson leads Heal Our People’s Endowment, a group that’s been critical of the endowment.  

Peterson wrote, “The New Hanover Community Endowment has been without a CEO for five-and-a-half months. How does a staff of a $1.3 billion endowment perform without essential leadership?”

Cameron said, “We have had very good leadership since William resigned, and that’s been Lakesha … We have a well-trained, well-experienced, extremely talented leader.”

He said “excellent leadership” has also come from the endowment’s staff and board.

Asked how the CEO search is going, Winslow said, "It is our intent to have the new CEO in place by the end of the summer."

Read more about the New Hanover Community Endowment in the summer edition of WilmingtonBiz Magazine.
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