KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. — As Dare County leaders consider the best way to deal with the affordable housing issue crisis on the Outer Banks, one potential model is gaining some new attention.
Officials have cited the partnership that led to the creation of housing for teachers as an example of what could be possible with more funding.
“It has only been possible through collaboration to get this going,” said Barbara Davidson, executive director of the Dare Education Foundation. “So I think on one end of the spectrum, we’re here to help the people willing to step up solve this. Whether’s that’s meeting with them, sharing resources, giving them tours.”
Dare Education Foundation operates the 24-unit Run Hill Ridge site in Kill Devil Hills and also has 12 units for teachers in Buxton. They offer a two-bedroom apartment for at $1,050 a month – well below the market rent for nearby housing.
“All of our units are full and they’re completely full with teachers,” Davidson said. “The initial thought was well if we can’t rent it to teachers, we could also rent to administrators and then further down the list, state employees.”
Those concerns about demand also contributed to planners holding off on a fourth building on the Kill Devil Hills site.
More than a decade later, there’s a waiting list of at least 30 teachers. So now the foundation is hoping to add more housing in the near future.
Outer Banks
Housing Task Force hopes Dare County can retain $35 million in state funding
“Some of the teachers have really long commutes in order to get to school, two hours each way,” Davidson said. “But we’ve also had teachers living in cars, living with friends.”
Dare County Commissioners allocated $1 million to the foundation to fund new construction, but Davidson says they’re taking a step back and using feasibility to see what that will look like.
“We want to be able to support the district in their recruitment and retention needs, but right now we’re just scratching the surface,” she said. “We’re not making the impact we know we really could.”
The program here was modeled on one in Hertford County, one of the first in the state. Teachers’ housing also recently opened in Bertie County. Like with Dare County, the school district partnered with a foundation and the State Employees Credit Union to get the project going.
Watch previous coverage: Housing Task Force hopes Dare County can retain $35 million in state funding
And the nonprofit model could serve as an example locally as the county’s housing task force hopes $35 million in state funding will be available.
Dare County Commissioners are expected to vote on whether to retain the funding on Tuesday.
They voted in April to send the money back to the state, citing community concerns about the criteria the county was forced to follow in order to take advantage of the funding.