{"id":282,"date":"2026-06-01T19:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=282"},"modified":"2026-06-01T19:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:38:08","slug":"nc-housing-advocates-face-challenges-from-federal-funding-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"NC housing advocates face challenges from federal funding uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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America is experiencing a housing crisis that touches nearly every community and forces economically vulnerable citizens to make impossible decisions, Renee M. Willis, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re talking about choices between rent or medicine, choices between transportation and rent, choices between child care and rent,\u201d Willis said. \u201cThese are choices that no family should have to make.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Willis was keynote speaker at \u201cBringing It Home 2026,\u201d an annual statewide conference that brings together service providers, industry experts and advocates to discuss housing solutions. The conference is sponsored by the NC Housing Coalition, the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the NC Coalition to End Homelessness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s conference comes amid much change and funding uncertainty on the federal level. Even after money has been appropriated, it\u2019s often slow to come, said conference organizers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an existential crisis for a lot of organizations, some of which have ceased the
\nwork they do because they no longer have the money for it, have lost people or are not able to serve,\u201d said Samuel Gunter, executive director of the housing coalition. \u201cWe\u2019re in the midst of bigger economic pressures. We\u2019re losing the reliability of federal resources that are targeted to the solutions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The distance between being housed and unhoused is shorter than most people imagine, Willis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOften it\u2019s a single crisis, a medical emergency, a job loss, divorce, domestic violence, a disability, natural disaster, a rent increase, a moment when the math simply stops working,\u201d Willis said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Willis pointed to her organization\u2019s report titled<\/span> The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes<\/span>, which found that there is a shortage of approximately 7.2 million rental homes across the nation for extremely low-income renters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are 35 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households nationwide, Willis said. In North Carolina, it\u2019s 38 affordable and available homes for every 100 low-income households, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Low-income renters in North Carolina far outnumber affordable housing units\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n