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The state of housing in Winston-Salem, Part 2: The Choice Neighborhood Grant

The state of housing in Winston-Salem, Part 2: The Choice Neighborhood Grant
January 13
18:57 2025

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word for year for 2024 was “polarization,” which is defined as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes.”

While there were several polarizing topics discussed last year, one thing that everyone can agree on no matter if you’re a Democrat, Republican, unaffiliated, or never voted, the lack of quality affordable housing is a problem in Winston-Salem and across the state. 

Housing is considered affordable if a family pays no more than 30% of its annual gross income in housing costs. Families paying more than one-third of their annual income toward housing are  considered cost-burdened. Those families paying more than 50% are considered severely cost-burdened. 

In 2018 a study showed that Winston-Salem was in need of about 16,000 new affordable housing units. And according to the N.C. Housing Coalition, last year 28% of households, which is about 1,118, 220 North Carolinians, are cost-burdened.

To begin our State of Housing series, we’ll delve into the Choice Neighborhood Grant. 

A year after the study was released in 2019, the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem (HAWS)  awarded the Choice Neighborhood Initiative grant. The $30 million grant, which is distributed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is designed to help replace outdated public housing units with mixed housing and single-family homes. Over the next four years and five different phases, the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) is expected to bring more than 400 units of affordable housing to the Northeast and East Wards.

When discussing the grant in 2022, Kevin Cheshire, executive director of HAWS, said the Choice Neighborhood Initiative isn’t just an investment in housing, but also the people who live in the community. 

“This targeted redevelopment is part of a comprehensive plan to transform a community by investing in the people who live in that community and in the neighborhood which surrounds it, not just the housing,” Cheshire said. “If we don’t get the investment in our people, and if we don’t get the investment in the surrounding neighborhood, and if we’re not fully committed to that, all this is expensive housing. This project has to be transformational.”

Last year to help support redevelopment, HAWS and the City of Winston-Salem was awarded a $2.5 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Supplemental Grant from HUD. The effort was spearheaded by Congresswoman Kathy Manning, who said in a press release that she was proud of the work that was done to make it happen, and excited to see what the future holds for Cleveland Avenue. 

“The Cleveland Avenue Homes project will revitalize Northeast Winston-Salem by providing high-quality, affordable housing options and enhancing community access to education opportunities, employment programs, and health care services,” Manning wrote. “I’m proud to have led the effort in Congress to secure funding for this project and am thrilled to announce an additional $2.5 million in federal support to expand the housing supply and provide vital resources for local residents.” 

Phase 1 of the grant implementation was focused on the site of the former Brown Elementary School, located at the corner of Highland Avenue and Eleventh Street. HAWS purchased the site of the historic elementary school over a decade ago and redeveloped it into a 81-unit apartment complex that opened last year. The complex, Brown School Lofts at Legacy Heights, offers one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments and townhomes at or below market rate. 

Phase 2 of implementation and most of the funding from the grant will be used to redevelop Cleveland Avenue Homes. Most of the two-story brick apartment buildings and most of the houses that once stood in the neighborhood have already been torn down to make way for redevelopment. 

Mattie Young, who is known as the “Mayor of Cleveland Homes,” lived in the same apartment at the corner of 15th Street and 17th Street for 52 years. The five decades she lived in Cleveland Homes, Young did everything in her power to uplift the neighborhood. She served as president of the Residents Council for over 30 years, she started a weekly food pantry and a free clothes drive. Young was the glue that held Cleveland together and everyone knew it. Even Mayor Allen Joines recognizes Young as the Mayor of Cleveland Homes. 

“I enjoyed working with the people … I just thank the Lord that I was able to help somebody,” said Young when discussing her dedication to Cleveland Avenue Homes. 

Young said she has followed the Choice Neighborhood Initiative from the beginning. Young, who will celebrate her 99th birthday in July, recalled one of the early meetings held at Bethlehem Baptist Church where the plans for Cleveland and other parts of East Winston were first discussed. “They had a lot of people come in from Washington D.C., the head people from HUD and some other places,” Young said. 

The Mayor of Cleveland Homes said although she’s disheartened by the demolition of the neighborhood she called home for over five decades, she feels optimistic about the redevelopment and the future of the neighborhood. 

“It was sad to see it go, but I think it’s a good thing. Change doesn’t always have to be bad, it can be a good thing,” Young said. 

Not everyone is as positive as Young about the redevelopment of Cleveland. Questions have been raised about the quality of homes that will be built and how former residents will afford housing in the area. Many people have also asked questions about where the residents who lived in the apartments that have already been demolished have gone.

According to HAWS, most of the residents who lived in Cleveland, including Young, have moved to other properties managed by HAWS, like the Brown School Lofts. 

During a marker unveiling at the Brown Schools Lofts last November, Cheshire said he was proud of the work that has already been done to create affordable housing and future plans. In addition to the Brown School Lofts, Cheshire also encouraged community leaders to visit other housing developments in the area, Camden Station and The Oaks at Tenth.

“It’s unfortunate that sometimes our housing is stigmatized, and the residents, but this is housing. We call it a lot of different things – workforce, affordable, low income, public – but it’s housing and it’s housing for people, and that’s what we want to continue to build,” Cheshire said. 



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Tevin Stinson

Tevin Stinson

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