Wilmington Housing Authority houses tenants making 30% of the area median income or less. For a single person, that’s $22,750 a year or less. And typically, a family living at Creekwood or Houston Moore pays exactly 30% of their total income for rent.
But next year, more than 500 units will likely see their rents go up. Way up. Rather than basing the new rents on a tenant’s income, they’ll be based on the area median income, or AMI. And with so many newcomers to Wilmington making higher salaries that AMI has really gone up.
Under the tenant income-based scheme, average rent at Creekwood is $300. They all now need to pay rent aimed at those making 40-45% of AMI. For affected units, the lowest rent will now be $975 for a 2-bedroom, so some tenants are seeing their rents double or even triple…