A thousand people gathered at Watts Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Raleigh on Saturday to ask the city council one question: Did you keep your campaign promises on affordable housing?
The church’s sanctuary was filled to the brim with members of ONE Wake, a coalition of 40 religious congregations from around the county. More people spilled into two overflow rooms to watch a live stream of the event. At the front of the sanctuary, near the pulpit, sat a jumbo-sized prop report card waiting to be filled out.
Last October, seven of the council’s eight current members (and many of their then-opponents) gathered at the same church, before a similarly large and expectant crowd, at ONE Wake’s invitation. They publicly committed to increasing the city’s affordable housing budget from $30 million to $70 million and reserving 100 acres of public land for new affordable housing units if elected. Their promises felt urgent and refreshingly concrete in the face of Wake County’s staggering 60,000-unit housing shortage.
Six months into their term, the council members returned (minus Jane Harrison, who was out of town) with some good news and some bad news.
Raleigh’s affordable housing funding didn’t increase to $70 million in the city’s most recent budget cycle. But it didn’t decrease either, which counts for something, the council members argued.
“This budget cycle, the affordable housing budget did increase slightly,” council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton explained to the crowd. “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.”
The council did not set aside a significant amount of public land for affordable units, although some of them (along with ONE Wake’s leaders) want to see some of the 415-acre Randleigh tract in Southeast Raleigh, which is owned jointly by the city and county, redeveloped for affordable housing.
After those lukewarm updates, the most exciting moment of the day came when Reverend Paul Anderson, the pastor of The Fountain of Raleigh Fellowship, stood at the pulpit and asked the council members one by one if they would support a 2026 bond referendum to fund affordable housing.
They each said they would, eliciting cheers and applause from the crowd. But while a few of the council members—Lambert-Melton, Megan Patton, and Christina Jones—specified that they would support a $200 million bond, Mayor Janet Cowell and council members Stormie Forte, Mitchell Silver and Corey Branch were more circumspect about the dollar amount.
Harrison, the last council member, wrote on her website Monday that she supports ONE Wake’s affordable housing goals and will “recommend the $200 million bond.”
Due to a quirk in the state’s public meeting laws, the presence of a quorum of city council members in one place—even a church, on a Saturday during their summer hiatus—constitutes an official meeting and must be publicized so that anyone can attend. Since this event was not publicized, the city council members had to separate into two groups to avoid a quorum. This meant that Mayor Janet Cowell and council members Lambert-Melton, Mitchell Silver, and Corey Branch took the stage to answer ONE Wake’s questions first, then exited the room. Only then could council members Stormie Forte, Megan Patton, and Christina Jones enter and take their turn in the hot seat. (During the transition, the 900 congregants in the sanctuary stood, held hands and sang “We Shall Overcome.”)
The bifurcation of the event produced some telling moments. ONE Wake leaders asked the first group if they would support an affordable housing bond generally, and they all said yes. Then ONE Wake clarified they want a $200 million bond. Would the council support that? Lambert-Melton was the only member of his group to stick to his original yes. When Cowell said “no,” the crowd shuddered with disappointment.
“To commit to an actual number is just something that we are not able to do,” the mayor said, adding that she and the city manager have already begun planning for a 2026 bond measure—which she expects “will be significantly more than $80 million,” the amount of the city’s last affordable housing bond passed in 2020.
ONE Wake leaders pointed out that Raleigh voters overwhelmingly approved a $275 million parks bond in 2022.
“I’m grateful that we’re able to have those tension points in this space, knowing that we’re going to continue to work, versus wringing our hands at home,” Lisa Yebuah, the lead pastor at the Southeast Raleigh Table, a member of ONE Wake, told INDY after the event.
“We will continue to press them where they said no,” agreed Revered Donna Coletrane Battle, “and continue to also work with them and imagine with them ways that we can turn that no into a yes.”
Chloe Courtney Bohl is a Report for America corps member. Follow her on Bluesky or reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].