The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Affordability Strategy data estimated that in 2022, 33% of households in Statesville have at least one of four housing problems: incomplete kitchen facilities, incomplete plumbing facilities, more than one person per room and are considered housing cost burdened. After hearing from residents, Darbah Skaf, CEO of Statesville Housing Authority (SHA) and its nonprofit affiliate, Iredell/Statesville Community Enrichment Corporation (ISCEC) began brainstorming ideas for an event that could gather community members and service providers to address these issues. With collaboration among SHA, ISCEC, the City of Statesville and Centralina, Darbah’s ideas were brought to life in the form of Statesville Thrives on June 29th, 2023.

Centralina Regional Council is a regional organization focused on addressing the needs of member communities in our nine-county area and working collaboratively on issues that impact our region. We examine national, state and local trends impacting our member governments and identify their potential impacts to determine best practices for meeting needs and addressing challenges. This brief dives into current regional trends and how they are currently being addressed by Centralina, as well as how they will continue to be addressed in upcoming years.

The region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) is a five-year strategy that guides priorities for economic development and outlines a coordinated growth approach that builds on the region’s strengths, addresses barriers to future growth, prioritizes key regional industry clusters and emphasizes collaboration.

Most communities in our region do not have the need or financial resources for full-time code enforcement staff. To help support these local governments, Centralina offers on-call staff from the Centralina Community Economic Development (CED) department. Read how our team recently helped the Town of Weddington handled a recent violation and learn more about how CED can help your community enforce code compliance.

The month of April is National Fair Housing Month and National County Government Month. There is no better time than now to celebrate Union County and its initiatives to further fair and affordable housing in their jurisdiction! 

Access to affordable housing is essential to cultivating healthy, equitable and prosperous communities. The lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in the national economy, population growth and other factors have increased housing prices and rental rates and decreased the supply of housing units that are affordable for low- and middle-income households. A recent Centralina Learns session’s panel shared insights and identified opportunities for addressing the affordable housing crisis and the missing middle.

Upon identifying a significant gap in disaster recovery processes, the Centralina Economic Development District (EDD) embarked in a collaborative process that connects the region in developing long-term disaster recovery plans. In April 2021, the EDD partnered with Centralina Regional Council and the nine-county emergency management (EM) directors to launch the Regional Resilience Collaborative (RCC) program.

The Centralina Economic Development District (EDD) launched the 2023-2028 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) Action Plan which serves as the region’s roadmap for supporting a diverse economy that ensures coordinated growth via the prosperity for all regional lenses. The CEDS Action Plan includes 26 urgent recommendations implemented during the next 24 months being led by the 28 regional subject matter experts across the region.

The December 2022 Centralina Regional Managers’ meeting focused on fair and affordable housing needs in the region. Learn more about how this complex issue connects to others in your community and what Centralina is doing to help.