Raleigh’s sub‑$1,000 rentals are vanishing. This new project offers a small fix
For 68-year-old Wayne Horton, Biltmore Hills is where he grew up and later returned as an adult to live out his retirement. It’s also one of the last pockets of truly affordable housing in Southeast Raleigh.
Now, as redevelopment pressures intensify across the city — especially along Garner Road and near I‑440 — a nonprofit developer is preparing a $4.7 million renovation to preserve the aging 50-unit complex and keep current residents like Horton in their homes.
Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), a Boston-based nonprofit, recently closed on financing and began work last week.
“People in this neighborhood deserve to have better housing,” Horton said from his living room Thursday morning while he packed up boxes to prepare for the upgrades. As the city’s sub‑$1,000 rentals disappear, “there’s completely almost no affordable housing anywhere for people like us,” he said.
...“This is [our] first acquisition in North Carolina,” said POAH president Aaron Gornstein, in a release. “We look forward to partnering with the city and county and local groups working to preserve this community and expand affordable housing in the state.”