Governor Josh Stein wants the agencies under his control to work together to address a statewide housing shortfall of hundreds of thousands of homes.
That's the thrust of a new executive order Stein signed at the Executive Mansion on Tuesday.
"We already know a lot about what we need to do to build more housing. We've just got to get to work doing it," Stein said during a press conference.
Executive Order 36 directs state agencies to "prioritize" housing in relevant policies, coordinate on efforts that could boost housing and work with outside groups like nonprofits and financial institutions to help support builders and local governments trying to add housing.
To explain why the executive order was needed, Stein pointed to an analysis released last year that found North Carolina's housing shortage could grow to nearly 765,000 homes by 2029. That analysis was commissioned by the NC Chamber Foundation, the NC Home Builders Association and the NC Realtors.
Stein noted that teachers do not make enough to pay the average rent in 23 North Carolina counties.
And, Stein added, a carpenter working in Charlotte can afford about 20% of the entry level homes there, while a Raleigh carpenter can afford about 8% of the starter homes in that area.
"They can build the homes. They just can't afford to live in the homes they're building," Stein said.
As part of the executive order, Stein has hired Janneke Ratcliffe as the state's new senior director for housing policy. Ratcliffe, a North Carolina native, is coming to state government from the Urban Institute where she most recently led the organization's Housing and Communities Division.
Ratcliffe told reporters that she plans to set up dashboards and establish metrics to track the state's progress on housing.
"We recognize that every community, every town has different needs. At the same time, we understand that there are universal problems and universal solutions and we need to recognize ... Jones County may need a few hundred units and that might sound like nothing here in Wake County where we need 100,000 units," Ratcliffe said.
In her remarks, Ratcliffe made clear that she is agnostic about the kind of approach, as long as it adds housing.
In some instances, she said, that could look like adding cottages in backyards that allow multiple generations of families to live on the same properties, in other places it could be an effort focused on preserving existing housing that is deteriorating and in others it could be trying to make it easier for factory built housing to be built.
"A big tent approach to housing affordability and housing access is what this state needs now and what we need for its long-term future to ensure that every North Carolinian has a safe, stable, affordable place to call home," Ratcliffe said.
