Housing Matters 2 NC

Housing Matters 2 NC is the podcast feed of the North Carolina Housing Coalition's Housing Call, with episodes titled by date, such as 'Housing Call: March 24, 2026'. Each one is the recording of that call. The format rarely changes. A coalition staffer welcomes everyone and hands off: Anna Patterson on several recent calls, Haley Solomon on one in February. Usually the handoff goes to Stephanie Watkins-Cruz, introduced as the coalition's Director of Housing Policy. On the April 14 call it went to Executive Director Samuel Gunter, who opened by mentioning two nights sleeping on the ground at a Girl Scout camp. Next comes a rundown of the 'top things this week', followed by federal updates, state updates and local headlines, with links collected in the call notes. The federal material goes deep. Recent calls followed the 21st Century Road to Housing Act from its Senate passage, which the call described as the most significant housing package in more than 30 years, to open division among House Republicans. They also covered the President's budget request, two federal appeals court rulings seen as good news for nonprofit homelessness funding, two Trump administration executive orders on housing, and a partial government shutdown, down to which departments were funded and which were not, HUD among them. At the state level, property taxes run through everything. One call agreed that rising property tax bills weigh heavily on people with fixed incomes. It then argued that a proposed referendum on a levy limit would hamstring local governments and walked through a scenario to show why. Other calls took up the property tax exemption for affordable housing owned by nonprofits. One speaker traced it to an old state statute and a court decision known as Blue Ridge, and a guest on the April 7 call compared the North Carolina draft statute with structures used in California and San Francisco. General Assembly committee meetings, such as the House Select Committee on Property Tax Reduction and Reform, get flagged by name and start time. The tone is practical and warm. It is a briefing, but it leaves room for asides, like a February call that opened with 'Happy February' and relief at having made it out of January. Several calls end with something to act on: comment on HUD's proposed rules, register for Housing Day at the General Assembly, support the Bringing It Home conference on ending homelessness, or reach out with a topic to cover. The feed holds a large back catalog of these calls. Any recent dated episode is a sensible place to start. The order of business barely changes, so the opening rundown is enough to show whether the level of detail suits.