By Jordan Meadows
Staff Writer
More than 1,000 Wake County residents gathered at Watts Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in southeast Raleigh on July 12th with one pressing question for their city leaders: Have you kept your promises on affordable housing?
The event, organized by One Wake, a nonpartisan coalition of 40 religious congregations and community groups, packed the church’s sanctuary and two overflow rooms with residents, organizers, and elected officials.
Attendees waved handheld fans and watched intently as council members were publicly asked to account for pledges made last October—just weeks before the municipal election—to significantly expand the city’s affordable housing efforts.
The elected officials—seven of eight Raleigh City Council members, including Mayor Janet Cowell—were asked to give simple “yes” or “no” answers to a series of questions about progress toward their campaign promises.
The questions were clear: Had they raised the city’s affordable housing budget from $30 million to $70 million? Had they identified 100 acres of city-owned land for affordable housing development? And would they support a new $200 million bond referendum to fund future projects?
City leaders acknowledged they had fallen short on the first two commitments.
Raleigh’s affordable housing budget has not reached $70 million, though it did receive a modest boost this year, including $11.8 million from the final portion of a previous $80 million bond and another $11.6 million from property taxes.
“This budget cycle, the affordable housing budget did increase slightly,” said Council Member Jonathan Lambert-Melton. “We budgeted a little more conservatively, given what’s going on in the world and in the nation. I will say, where most departments were asked to cut things and to constrict, the affordable housing budget did not do that. We are committed to expanding affordable housing.”
But there was little movement on the promised 100 acres of land. The Randleigh Tract, a 415-acre property jointly owned by Raleigh and Wake County, has emerged as a focal point for advocates. One Wake has pressed officials to commit at least part of that land for affordable housing, despite acknowledged challenges like planned highway construction.
“When there’s over 400 acres of land available, some of which isn’t usable for certain projects, there is space for affordable housing,” said the Rev. Dr. Donna Coltrane-Battle of Southeast Raleigh Table United Methodist Church, one of One Wake’s key leaders. “We’re okay negotiating, what we’re not okay with is the commitment to do the work, and it does not happen, and the citizens of Wake County don’t get what they need.”
The most dramatic moment of the assembly came when Rev. Paul Anderson, pastor of The Fountain of Raleigh Fellowship, asked the council members—one by one—if they would support a new bond to fund affordable housing. Each answered yes to the idea of a bond. But when asked if they would support a $200 million bond, only three—Lambert-Melton, Megan Patton, and Christina Jones—committed to that figure.
Mayor Cowell and others hesitated. “To commit to an actual number is just something that we are not able to do,” Cowell told the audience, adding that she expects a new bond proposal before the 2026 election will be significantly more than $80 million.” But she cautioned against moving too quickly, especially after a recent affordable housing bond failed in Cary.
“I think when you see some of these failures, you just want to be careful that you’re not going out and setting yourself up for failure,” Cowell said. “We haven’t even started the conversation yet, so I just want to go through the correct process with the staff. I do feel confident that we will have an affordable housing bond. I feel confident we will size it in a way that will make a dent, and will also pass.”
A massive cardboard report card sat at the front of the sanctuary, waiting to be filled in with council responses. Due to North Carolina’s open meeting laws, the council had to split into two groups to avoid forming a quorum, leading to a brief intermission where attendees held hands and sang “We Shall Overcome.”
“We seek to be in a public relationship with elected officials. For most of them–maybe not for all of them–we are meeting with them, we’re constantly having conversations,
Battle said.
According to the North Carolina Housing Coalition, over 120,000 households in the county are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Nearly half of rental households struggle to afford their homes, and in 2023 alone, the county saw 779 foreclosures and nearly 30,000 evictions.
One Wake’s style of direct, public accountability—asking leaders “yes” or “no”—is modeled on decades of organizing tradition through the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation’s largest faith-based organizing network. Leaders emphasized that clarity in public commitments is crucial.
“We have a $275 million bond for Parks and Rec. But if people can’t afford to live here, particularly people who have been long-time residents of Raleigh and Wake County, are having to go further and further out. We’re really wanting our elected officials to push, and to be in it with us, for higher bonds, particularly since building costs have nearly doubled,” Battle emphasized.
The resistance to large-scale affordable housing efforts, she argued, often stems from bias and limited imagination.
“I would say one misconception is that we can’t do it. Because we can. Or that we can’t do it at scale: no, we have the capacity to do it at scale,” Battle said. “I think another misconception is that when people hear affordable housing, they hear the word poverty. What they don’t hear is: humans deserve homes and that all humans want to live in a safe, beautiful neighborhood where they can thrive.”
For Coltrane-Battle, the mission is personal and spiritual. It’s centered around an optimistic and dutiful perspective called “People Power”.
“‘People power’ is an age-long social reality. We have the ability to impact one another, and when we’re working in concert with each other we can go a lot further than if we’re working alone,” Battle said. “One Wake, and all of its sister institutions here in North Carolina have a number of wins. We also just recently got a win in Cary, where the Cary City Council is now working with one of our institutions to build affordable housing.”
As Raleigh leaders head into a summer recess, One Wake made it clear that the pressure isn’t easing anytime soon. They intend to keep showing up—and they expect their leaders to do the same.
