North Carolina's Housing Element State Planning Report 146.01

    PLAINTIFF'S
EXHIBIT



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imposed by substandard occupancy on even one family in the State. lt is

atso true, however, that without a clear understandi.ng of the problem and

how it is distributed in space, no commitment to eliminate it - no matter

how slncere-can possibly have much impact. lt is the purpose of this

section of the housing element, therefore, to lay the basis for a better

understanding of the problem, to indicate those aspects of the problem

that require additional clarification and to provide the foundation for

a housing planning process in North Carolina which can and must become

an integral component of the Statewide Development Pol icy

North Snrolinats Housing: A Tragedv OLGrave Proportions

North Carolina, like each of her sister states, suffers from a housing

crisis of grave proportions. As is nrost f requently the case throughout

the country, the problem impacts differently on different segments of the

population, and varies with respect to the geography of the State. Thus,

in North Carolina, renters are more likety to suffer from serious housing

defic.iencids than owners; blacks rnore prone than whites; rural famllies.

npre than urban dwellers; and, of course, the Poor are nrost at risk, re-

gardless of their other socio-economic characteristics.

As implled in the earlier discussion of the Statewide Development Policy,

North Carolina remains a predominantly rural, non-farm state that is charac-

terized by large numbers of small and intermedlate sized urban population

clusters within.-its boundaries. Thus, although approximately 55 percent of the

Statets population is classified as rural, there are forty-one places of

10,000 people or more, including six Standard Metropol itan Statistical Areas,

wherein more than 35 percent of the population resides.



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TheslightlymorethanfivemilllonNorthCaroliniansoccuPymorethan

l.6millionpermanent(yearround)housingunits,alrrpsttwo-thirdsof

which are owned by the fami ries in residence (Tabte 0ne). vrhre reriabre

dataonhouslngconditionsincludedintheCensusofHousingarevery

limitedandscarcelyrelatehowdebilitatinginsplritandlIfestyle

substandardoccupancyis,thedatadoreflectminimumlevetsofeffort

requiredtomeeteventhenpstminimumneedsofthecitizenry.

lnNorthCarolinainlgT0,roughlyoneoutofeightdwellingunitslacks

some or a, plumbing facirities; one in nine occupied units are overcrowded;

whileonehousingunitintwenty.fivelackbothplumbingfacilitiesand

areovercrowded.lgnoringthespatialdistributionofhousingunitsin

the state for a moment ronger, and concentrating sorety upon the dimensions

ofraceandtenure,impliesthattheinterrelatedproblemsofraceand

povertyinNorthCarolinaplaythemselvesoutastheydoinmostother

states in the union' Whereas' for example' seven out of ten whlte families

arehomeowners,lessthanfiveintenblackfamiliesareowner-occupants.

And while homeowners i n genera I errJvv

carorina, ress thanone in ten white owners occupy housing lacking some

plumbingfacilities,comParedtothreeoutoftenblackowners.rorrenters,

theproblemsforbothracesaregreater,whilethegapbetweenthemremains

verylarge.Forwhiterenters,l4percentlacksomeplumbing,comparedto46

percent of all non-whites. And, as the data in Table One illustrates, the race.

tenure dichotomy.exists with respect to overcrowding as well' .ne final way of

SurnmarizingthisproblemistocomparegeneraIoccuPancycharacteristics

in Norfh carorina with the characteristics of just the substandard inven-

tory(TableTwo).Whereas,forexample,65percentoftheStatersinventoryis



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Table I

SELECTED CHARACTERI STI CS OF THE HOUSING STOCK

BY RACE. 1970 in NORTH CAROLINA

Nurnber of Owner 0ccupied Units

Percent 0wner Occupied

Number of Renter 0ccupied Units
Percent Renter 0ccupied

Number of Units Lacking Some 0r
All Facilities

Pe rcen t

Nunber of Occupied Units With
l.0l 0r Hore Persons Per Room

Pe rcen t

Nunber of 0ccupied Units With All
Plumbing Faci I ities and l.0l 0r
More Parscns Per Room

Percen\

Nunber 0f 0ccupied Units Lacking
Sorne 0r All Plumbing Facilities
and l.0l 0r More Persons Per Room

Percent

lJh i te

858097

69.85

370383
30.ls

109179
8.887

83642
5.809

65376
5.322

L8266

1.487

Non-!Jh i te

127519

45.463

L52973
54.537

L52973
38.45

70908
25.29

33777
L2.O42

37131

13. 238

TOTAL

985616

65. 317

523356
34.693

2L7027
L4.392

154550
12.794

991s3
6.57

55397

3.67r

SOURCE: The 1970 Census of Popu I ation and Hous i ng



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Table 2

Owner occuPied units

Renter occuPled units

Black occuPied

Average monthlY rent

Average val ue

Number

97007

t20020

I 07848

$ 35.50

$5,869. I I

Percent

44.10%

55.30,

4e.6ei

Source:ThelgT0UnitedStatesCensusofPooulationandHousing

CHARACTERI ST I CS HOUSING LACKING

ifFActLlrl I



owner occupied, only 45 percent of

Similarly, whereas only 23 percent

res ided i n by non-wh ite fami I ies,

housing is occupied by non-whites.

the substandard inventory is so class,r,"O.
of all occupied housing in l.lorth Carolina is

practlcal ly one half of al I substandard

while awaiting f inar pubtication of comprete census reports,
some tndication can be obtained of how the problem is dlstrlbuted among

urban and rural areas of the state. Beginning with the baslc urban-rurat
dichotomy, forty-two Percent of the housing units in North Carolina are
located in urban areas, as defined by the U.S. census.0f those, only 6 percent
lack all or some plumbing facilities. of the almost sixty percent of the
statets rural housing units, which inctudes some 9401000 dwellings, alrnost
210,000 suffer f rom ptt.rmbing def iciencies (Table Three)..All together then, of
the nrore than 250,000 dwelling units lacking complete ptumuing facitities,
approximately 80 percent are located in rural North carol ina.

A Note 9n Housinq Qual ilv
l'he reader of this report will note that alt data referring to housing

quality in the following tabtes in actualify deals with the presence or
absence of complete plumbing facilities in occupied housing units in North
carol ina. whereas, the tabtes are appropriatery captioned, frequentry the
text of the report will, in analyzing fhe tables, refer to substandard

housing conditions. Traditionally, of course, the presence of comptete

plumbing faci lit,es has been a necessary but not a suf f icient condition for
classifying an.y housing unit as standard.

As most housing analysts are aware, therrtgTo Census of poputation and

Housingt'doas not classify housing units according to their physicat condition,



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Table 5

Urban-Rural Housing Units
By Plumbing Facilities, North Carolina, 1970

Permanent Housing Units ln N.C.
Complete Pl umbing Faci I ities
lncomplete Plumbing Faci I ities

Urban Housing Units in N.C.
Complete Plumbing Faci I ities
lncomplete Pl umbing Faci I ities

Rural Houslng Units in N.C.
Complete Pl umbing Faci I ities
lncomplete Plumbing Faci I ities

I ,616,099
I ,363,327

252,772

676,543
633,291

43,252

939,556
730,036
209,520

(84.4r)
(|5.61)

(4t.9tr)
03.6%)
( 6.4fi)

(58. rr)
(77.7fi)
Q2.3%)

Source: Charles E. Lewis, Extension Sociologist
Commun i ty Deve I opment Department
N. C. Agrigultural Extension Service
Prepared from Advanced Report, . 

1970

Census of Housing, U' S' Department of
Crmmerce, Bureau of the Census'



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as the Bureau has done in the past. The sound, deterioratingand dilapidated

designations have been dropped because they have proven to be unreliable bases

for judging housing quality when the assessments are.made by enumerators,

each of whom bring to the task a variety of 
,biases 

which affects his views

of the world. Rather than continue to publish statistics on housing quality

which cannot be depended upon, in 1970, the Bureau tlmited its concern

to measuring housing characteristics that can be objectively documented and

replicated, thus the primary emphasis on the presence or absence of comptete

plumbing faci I ites.

For the purPoses of this report, all housing lacking sorne or al I plumbing

facilities are considered substandard. Although plumbing def iciencies would

be expected to be highly correlated with structura I deficiencies, using the

plumbing variable alone is almost certain to result in an underestimate of

the real problem. This would be particularly the case in the larger urban

areas where structural deficiencies are more abundant than the incidence of
r:ult1' cr incemplete plumbing faci lities. At best, therefore, a mlnimum or bench-

mark of the iagnitude of North Carolinars housing difficulties is presented here.

As indicated in the introduction to the Housing Element, the Stafets

Development Pol icy Program is based upon a multi-county, tr€gional approach

to the analysis of problems of growfh and development. As indicated atso,

this perspective is founded upon the significant regional variations exist-

ing in North Carol iha with respect to population characteristics, economic

base, resources and growth potential. Table Four presents selected social and

hcusing characteristics of the Statets Mountain, Piedmont and Coastal Plains

regions which clearly illustrate the importance of geography in North Carotina.

Economic Characteristics and Housinq Conditions



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Table 4

Selected Housing and Social Characteristics
of the Mountain, Piedmont and Coastal
Plains Regions, North Carol ina, 1970

N. C. Appal achia Piedmont

Popu lation 5,082,059 I ,037 ,212
Percent Black 22.4 10.0
lulatrlarch lndex 12.6 10.5
Number of Hous i ng Un its I ,638,246 358,095
Overcrowding lndex 10.2 9.0
Bl ack Overcrowo i ng 25.3 19 .3
lncomplete Plumbing 14.4 14.0
Black lncomplete Plumbing 38.4 l9.B
Average Monthly Rent $67 $65
Black Average Reot $48 552
Owner Occupancy Rate 65.3 72.8
Black Average Occupany Rate 45.5 47.7
Vacancy Rate 6.6 7.2
i S ing l e Fami I y Un its 82.7 84 .7
I Uong Vacancy 3B.B 43.9

2,112,750' 
20.5
lt.9

678,706
9.3

24.3
10.2
27.6

$70
$53

66.3
45.3
4.8

82.3
32.5

Vacancy Rate:

Percent Long

Coasta I

Plains

I ,932 1097
3l .l
t4.6

601 ,445
t2.t
27.3
t9.6
5r.0

$64
$42

59.6
45.1
8.4

8t.9
40.2

Legend:

Matriarch lndex: the percentage of fami I ies with members under age
eighteen which have female heads.

Overcrowding lndex: the percentage of occupied housing units with l.0l
or more Persons per room.

Bl ack Overcrowd i ng: the percentage of b lack occup ied hous i ng r-rni ts w i th
I .01 or rnore persons Per room.

lncomplete Plumbing: the percentage of occupied housing units lacking
complete plumbing

the percentage of year-round housing units that are vacant.

Vacancy: the percentage of vacant year-round housing units
that have been vacant for six months or more.

Source: 1970 Census of Population and Housing