Beth McKee-Huger: New friends in the neighborhood
One woman needs a place where she can get her power wheelchair through the door; her husband uses a walker. Another woman is excited about having a good place to care for her grandsons and about making new friends, especially since she heard about weekly community dinners with neighbors.
They are among the first in a long line to turn in applications for the new Yanceyville Place Apartments, where rents range from $335 to $895 for one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
Safe and healthy homes in a welcoming community at the right size and right price for essential worker paychecks and Social Security. When all the paperwork is completed, 84 happy households will be moving into attainable housing, among the hundreds seeking applications.
Yanceyville Place Apartments are the result of a partnership between the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit and Mills Construction Co., which are planning a second phase of 60 apartments to welcome more new friends into the neighborhood.
So, how did we get to this point?
We members of Church of the Holy Spirit have for decades wanted to build new homes in our backyard. In early 2020, we met representatives of Mills Construction, which was planning apartments next door. Mills agreed to build more units on the church's land, handling all the engineering, financing, construction and property management tasks that are beyond the church's capacity. Greensboro Urban Ministry and Cone Health are exploring ways to enhance health and wellness. The partnership has blossomed into a wonderful demonstration of the power of collaboration to achieve more than we thought possible.
There have been many steps in between the first introductions and the enthusiastic families submitting rental applications.
Many conversations within the church and with neighbors and community service organizations clarified the vision and worked through the questions.
Many conversations between the church and the developer solidified mutual trust. Zoning changes, financing applications to the City of Greensboro and N.C. Housing Finance Agency followed, as well as detailed site plans. Finally, we could invite neighbors, other churches, elected officials and our financial partners — First Horizon Bank, First Bank and Churchill Stateside Group — and friends to a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction.
Bulldozers, erosion control and dozens of skilled construction workers transformed the site into a compact, well-designed, walkable community. Professional property managers will ensure excellent maintenance for safety and pride for long-term sustainability and compliance with every requirement.
But Yanceyville Place Apartments does not solve the housing crisis in our city. Thousands of families need right-sized, right-priced quality homes in friendly communities.
This requires all of us to welcome opportunities for new friends in our neighborhoods. It calls us to consider whether our faith communities (or our businesses or our families) have land to partner with housing developers to repurpose into good places to live. Even sections of church lawns or parking lots can become right-sized homes.
It takes voting for elected officials who invest public dollars to achieve right-priced rents and who support housing-friendly public policies. We need more federal funding of quality rental housing and for the N.C. General Assembly to prioritize homes for the growing state population and for city government to step up local funding for the full range of housing developments.
We need more citizens to support, not oppose, local land-use changes to include compact, well-designed, walkable communities.
What will each of us do?
Beth McKee-Huger is an Episcopal deacon, housing advocate and farmer in Browns Summit.
