Safe, Affordable Housing

The City of Hickory has taken important steps to support housing affordability, but there’s more to do. Affordable  housing is one of the most urgent and complex challenges we face. As middle- and lower-income families face increasing financial pressures in these uncertain times, we need to use every tool in the toolbox, including exploring new and creative solutions, to ensure that people who live and work here can afford to stay here.

In both 2022 and 2023,  the Hickory area was rated 1st in affordability in the nation by the US News and World Report. However, Hickory dropped to 6th in 2024 before dropping from the top 25 list entirely in 2025. Rankings like this are not perfect and can miss a lot of the nuance of the housing market, but it spotlights that the rising cost of housing is an important problem that we need to address to meet the needs of our residents.

I have had conversations with various stakeholders here in  Hickory, including those who struggle to find safe and affordable  places to live, leaders of not-for-profits who seek to address housing, local government staff who are already hard at work on this problem, and individuals who work in the housing industry. There is still more to learn and I'm continuing to listen. There are also many barriers.  

Building on the insights of the Hickory by Choice 2030 Comprehensive Plan, I plan to pursue:

• Use of city-owned land for creative housing solutions in partnership with local developers and builders (see the Hickory Affordable Housing Initiative as an example from our recent past)
• Incentives such as waived or reduced utility connection fees for affordable homes and density bonuses for mixed-income housing developments that strengthen neighborhoods

Housing affects all of us. It shapes our neighborhoods, our schools, our economy, and our sense of community. If you’re fortunate to live in housing you can afford, it can be easy to think this issue doesn’t touch  you—but it does. Teachers should be able to live near the schools where they teach. Police officers should be able to live in the communities they serve. Employers benefit when workers are stable and supported. That’s why I care so much about safe, affordable housing. The strength of our communities and the resilience of Hickory depend on it.