One of the items the Greensboro City Council is discussing at the “strategy session” on Thursday, Oct. 13 is a city employee mortgage and rent assistance program.
Making Ownership Viable for Employees (MOVE), which is being proposed by the 2022 Leadership Edge Cohort, is to provide up to $15,000 of down payment assistance and up to $7,500 in rental assistance to eligible city employees.
Eligibility would be based on income and Mayor Nancy Vaughan said the figure being considered was 120 percent of the area median income (AMI).
For Housing Connect GSO, the first-time homebuyer assistance program for residents of Greensboro, the income eligibility requirement is based on 80 percent of AMI that, for a four-person household, is estimated to be about $58,000 per year.
The rental assistance would pay the security deposit and up to 25 percent of the monthly rent not to exceed $7,500 in total. Employees who utilize the rental assistance program would remain eligible for the down payment assistance program but the total assistance for the two programs from the city would not exceed $15,000.
The report on the GSO MOVE program notes, “Few cities within NC Offer similar incentives.”
To qualify for the MOVE program, the city employee must reside within the city limits. The benefits of the program according to the report include that it would encourage city employees to live in the city and “invest back into the community they serve as an employee of the City.”
The program would also help the city with recruiting and retaining employees “by providing options for relocation to Greensboro and home ownership within the City.”
The report also states, “An Employee’s Home ownership can be a major contributor to a sense of financial well-being, stability and security, all of which can add to their productivity and overall satisfaction working for the City.”
The challenges for the program listed in the report include the current low inventory of houses and apartments available, the additional expense in the city budget and the turnaround time for program applications and the city’s verification process.
Wow. Just, wow. So, let’s take money from the tax payers, and use it to subsidize the city employees even more than they already are. How many taxpayers needlessly lost their businesses, jobs, houses and/or income over the past two and half years? And now, the city wants to take their money and give it to city employees, who never were out of work, and didn’t miss a paycheck, so that they can buy a house.
Those of you with any common sense left, need to leave Greensboro, and Guilford county, right NOW. The rest of you morons who vote for this type of thing, by all means, stay.
OUT-F@%#ING-RAGEOUS!!!
Bye
The new city manager stated clearly that the employees of the city of Greensboro where the most important, Not the taxpayers.
I left Guilford in the summer of 2021. Except for checking in here once or twice a week, I haven’t looked back. No regrets. Guilford is a lost cause.
Just like student loans, my house is paid off. Once again those that cannot get their s$%# together and budget get a free pass. I am so happy that they are concerned with city retention as a whole. Does any city department have as many vacancies numbers and percentage wise as the police department?
More money, more money! Is that all this Council knows? Why not provide them pallet houses? On second thought, why not make those being given pallet houses work for the city? You’d see such an exodus that we’d have enough pallet houses for city employees.
Unbelieveacable! So we are going to pay some rents and mortgages for city employees. Can I get on?
The council has no sense of what is right or wrong; just feathering the nests of the faithful
As they should, it’s our turn now sonny SC would be happy to have you
Who is “sonny SC”?
Hey Big City, if you want to see how your turn works out, just check out Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, DC. Or Africa.
So this is what the highest tax increase in the history of this city gets us? This is tax payer money and it shouldn’t be squandered this way!
Well, you can’t expect the precious city employees to save their money for a down payment – like us regular dopes!
They need even more money from us sucker taxpayers! Because, well, home ownership is good.
So other people should pay for their house.
——-
And the Leftists complain when I call them parasites…
Sounds like uncle Joe’s college tuition pay for votes elimination program. Can the city help pay some of my mortgage? Seems my taxes pay your salary and all the other wasteful and ridiculous crap city council comes up with. I hope you are able to vote in November…vote wisely.
This is over the top!!!
Why not just raise all city employee’s salarys? That way all benefit instead of a selected few. What about those of us who saved our money for down payment to purchase our homes ourselves? Will they be required to pay back money if they quit or fired?
Pubic sector employee benefits should not be greater than private sector benefits. It just increases the cost to the tax payer and reinforces a “ruling class” narrative.
This mind-spinning idea is so wrong on several levels. This is another half-baked idea that, if implemented, will cost Greensboro taxpayers a large sum of money that will not achieve the desired goal. Where does the City Council members come up with these unworkable and expensive ideas? The fact that “Few cities within NC Offer similar incentives” should be a hint that this is a bad idea. I will wager that no one has done a benefit analysis of the cost to the taxpayer, including abuse of the program. City Council members operate like they are not accountable to anyone. A look at the election participation and the results tells one all that is needed to know.
If the City of Greensboro really wants to attract and keep qualified city employees living in the city, get rid of any program that has justice, equality, equity, discrimination, affirmative action and diversity as its stated goal. Those are code words that allow the City of Greensboro to discriminate at will.
I somehow suspect this wouldn’t be happening had property taxes not risen 30%.
I noticed the article said down payment assistance not property tax assistance. Could be genius though…..an employee with a hefty mortgage payment is more apt to show up regularly for work.
If this is such a great place to live, why do we have to pay people to move into town. Better to spend the money on police, fire and first responders.
It may be time for a recall election in Greensboro. The people who were elected did not tell us that they planned to raise taxes, give our tax money to employed people and set up new departments to employ more city employees.
It’s like the old Toyota commercial used to go…”You asked for it you got it…”
Citizens of GSO, you voted these Lords and Ladies in so I personally don’t think you have any right to b***h.
BTW, we have some houses in PG for sale and a Town Council that works for the people, not the other way around.
What about those that choose to live outside of Greensboro. Supposedly, employees, particularly Department Directors are to live within the City Limits. The Planning Director of many years has lived in High Point her entire career with Greensboro. She doesn’t pay our taxes.