Republished from: https://www.habitatwake.org/sites/default/files/2025%20Candidate%20Questionnaire%20-%20Habitat%20Wake_0.pdf

Full name: John Graham Singleton, Jr.

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: graforgarner.com

One in four households are unable to afford housing in our community. Six decades of stagnant wages, a 30-year undersupply of housing, and too little public and private funding are driving this housing crisis. If elected, what specific policies, practices, or initiatives will you implement to increase affordable housing in our community?

The City of Durham has introduced some changes to their UDO in 2019 that created and allowed for smaller lots and also had maximum on the square feet of the homes and maximum heights of these homes. These smaller homes have also smaller corner set backs. This has proven to have success in re-introducing starter homes back in Durham.

The smaller lots help to offset the incredible increases in the price of land in the Triangle area, and allows developers to get the most units as possible on these smaller lots with the smaller square foot homes.

Again, the impact helps to create an opportunity for starter homes that are not starting at the upper $300,000 to close to $500,000 for first time home buyers. Creating new zoning classifications can certainly be a start in trying to make housing more affordable to many different groups of potential first time home buyers.

Historically, intentionally discriminatory housing policy created racially segregated housing infrastructure. Government and the private sector prevented Black residents from becoming homeowners – resulting in today’s racial wealth gap. If elected, how will you advance racial equity in housing?

I think that so much of the mortgage programs that have been in place for decades need reform at the Federal / National level. There is not 2 or 3 simple changes to reform a process that has been in place for decades, but mortgage and banking reform is a good start. A way that the Town may be able to assist older minority homeowners is two fold.....

1) is to consider tax reductions programs for elderly residents that are being stressed to pay all of their monthly expenses along with their annual property taxes, and

2) the Town of Garner currently has a program in place with a non profit that evaluates the repair needs in a home for the resident and that need to be made for the resident to stay in the house. The Town has budgeted $100,000 in the current budget to assist these long time homeowners. That amount needs to be at least twice that amount as the current list is 18 homeowners with needs of approximately $360,000. This is just one way to help minority homeowners be able to stay in their homes and take the stress of those repairs out of their monthly budgets.

Rents are rising across our community. For North Carolina renters, rents have increased 21% since 2001 while incomes have only increased 2%. Almost half, 45.2%, of renters in the Raleigh-Cary Metro Area are cost burdened, or pay at least 30% of their income, on rent. What steps will you take to support renters?

Possibly provide some type of rental subsidy or a housing voucher to assist low income families and individuals afford their monthly rent. Again, changes to existing zoning classifications are needed to open the door to developers that support affordable housing.

Tax credits and subsidies are needed to be approved at both the State and Federal level to allow for developers be able to take advantage of these opportunities for building affordable housing.

The Town currently has budgeted money to assist renters / homeowners that can not pay their monthly utilities bill for water and sewer to the City of Raleigh. This program is managed by Raleigh and offers assistance for up to 3 consecutive months to help renters and owners to pay their monthly utility bills.

It is just one small way to assist people that are stressed to pay monthly bills. This program could also have a larger amount of dollars in the annual budget.

Home sales prices have soared since 2020, making homeownership increasingly out of reach for residents. Current low-income homeowners are also at risk of displacement from rising housing costs. How do you increase affordable homeownership and prevent resident displacement?

As mentioned previously, a change in zoning classifications is a start. But it should be a part of several potential changes to the entire home ownership issue for so many people. Several of the potential changes will need to come from bigger government agencies than a 44,000 population town like Garner.

Changes to local financing regulations for both new homeowners but also to the developers that are willing to focus on an affordable product. But it starts with some zoning reform so that the projects brought to the Town will be a better match for the needs of so many in our community.

And the tax credit and tax subsidies programs that have been available at the Federal level are also needed to incentivize these projects for developers in the Triangle area.