Raleigh city staff told the City Council on the second day of its 2025 retreat that the city faces an affordability crisis driven by high demand, rising land values and construction costs, and that addressing homelessness requires both more housing supply and targeted interventions.

Pat Young, planning and development director, told the council “We have an, housing affordability crisis both in Raleigh and in most metro areas nationally,” and said staff sees three areas of action: increasing overall supply, expanding income-restricted units and scaling evidence-based homelessness responses.

Why it matters: Raleigh is among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the U.S., and city officials said the market has pushed rents up substantially since 2017. Staff argued that zoning changes and incentives that allowed so-called “missing middle” housing — townhouses, duplexes and small apartment buildings — have already produced new options while bond funding and targeted subsidies are needed to serve households with much lower incomes.

Staff presented examples: the city’s 2020 affordable housing bond of $80 million has supported gap financing, site acquisition and home-repair programs; staff reported about 7,149 affordable units either completed or in the pipeline tied to the city’s recent initiatives. City presentations also described smaller, targeted developments supported with bond funds and nonprofit partnerships, including a Casa-led eight-unit project for youth aging out of foster care that received $700,000 in city bond funds.

On the homelessness front, Emily Sutton, director of Housing and Neighborhoods, described the Bringing Neighbors Home pilot, focused on rapid connections from encampments into housing and paired case management. Sutton said the pilot had enrolled 40 people; “almost everyone is housed,” she reported, and staff said partners including Healing Transitions, Oak City Cares and local health providers helped speed placements.

Staff framed the pilot as part of a larger “system” approach: increase permanent affordable housing supply while using direct assistance, vouchers and case management to move people quickly from street to home. Sutton cited other cities’ experiences — Houston, Dallas and Oklahoma City — where a strong mix of federal ARPA funding, public funds and philanthropy financed intensive street outreach and housing placements.

Council reaction and follow-up: Council members pressed staff for more granular projections of future housing demand and outputs (how many units the city needs and at what incomes), and for schedules showing when pipeline projects will be complete. Staff said they are developing a new affordable housing plan and will return with projections and a production-based forecast tied to the most recent bond-funded performance.

Ending: Staff emphasized that market-rate housing, while often higher-priced when delivered, can have an indirect effect by “filtering” older units into lower income bands over time and that new development and direct subsidies both play roles: “When we build enough housing, the expensive housing of yesterday becomes the cheap housing of today,” a guest presenter in a video segment summarized. The council asked staff to return with the draft affordable housing plan, tighter estimates of the remaining unit and funding gaps, and a fuller readout of the Bringing Neighbors Home pilot results in March.