Morrisville launches three-year pilot aiding teachers, town and county staff with rent

Morrisville officials presented a three-year pilot program on March 2, 2026 that will provide rental-assistance and security-deposit help to public workers, with the pilot’s first phase limited to Town of Morrisville employees, Wake County employees who live in Morrisville, and teachers and staff in Morrisville schools. Josh Michael, a member of the town’s planning staff, made the presentation to town council members.

The program is designed to both reduce monthly rent shortfalls for eligible workers and to help cover upfront security deposits for people moving into Morrisville. "The program offers money to help lower the cost of monthly rent, as well as cover security deposits for people who are moving into Morrisville," Michael said during the town-council presentation.

Funding is constrained: "Funding is limited, with only about $150,000 available to applicants each year. Divided equally between the two initiatives, staff expect to be able to offer rental assistance to between five and 12 households annually, and security deposit help to 40 to 50 households annually," Michael said. That equal split implies roughly half the annual pool will go toward monthly rental subsidies and half toward security-deposit assistance.

Eligibility rules for the security-deposit portion are explicit: "For the security deposit assistance , applicants must earn less than 80% AMI—in other words, about $73,000 for a single person, $83,000 for a two-person household, and $104,000 for a family of four." The available reporting does not specify whether the 80% AMI cutoff applies to the monthly rental-assistance piece as well.

Town staff described how individual subsidy amounts will be calculated: "The amount of money people will receive is based on a calculation that involves income, household size, and the average cost of rental housing in Morrisville." Michael illustrated the calculation with a concrete example: "Michael gave the example of a person making about $50,000 per year, who may only be able to afford an apartment with a monthly rent of $1,250 per month. But according to federal government estimates, a one-bedroom apartment in Morrisville typically costs around $2,020 per month. Morrisville’s pilot program would give the teacher $770 per month to make up the difference."

Key implementation details remain to be confirmed publicly: the town has not released a start date for applications, whether the annual $150,000 is drawn from town funds or other sources, per-household caps for rental or deposit aid, whether assistance is one-time or ongoing, or which office or vendor will administer the program. Notes from the presentation also show a minor discrepancy in how the event was described: one account records the March 2, 2026 date while Michael described his remarks as happening "Thursday night" during the town-council meeting.

Morrisville’s plan is a limited, targeted effort aimed at keeping teachers and public employees in the town by addressing upfront and monthly rental gaps; staff projections indicate the pilot could assist up to 50 households annually with deposits and up to a dozen households with monthly rent support under the roughly $150,000 yearly budget.