At-large City Councilmember Hugh Holston has a new job.
Holston has been named the CEO of the Greensboro Housing Coalition (GHC).
Holston has served on the GHC board of directors since 2017 and has been chair of the board since 2022.
As chair of the board of GHC, Holston has already been recused from voting on matters concerning GHC, and now as the CEO Holston will continue to be recused from voting, so that shouldn’t change.
Holston was unanimously selected by the City Council in September 2021 to fill the open seat created when former At-large City Councilmember Michelle Kennedy resigned to accept the position as director of the Greensboro Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development. Holston had to resign as chair of the Greensboro Planning and Zoning Commission before being sworn in as a city councilmember.
Holston won election to a four-year term in the 2021 election, which due to delays caused by the COVID restrictions was held July 26, 2022.
As the CEO of GHC, Holston becomes the third member of the City Council to run a nonprofit that receives major funding from the City of Greensboro. District 3 Councilmember Zack Matheny is president of Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) and At-large Councilmember Yvonne Johnson is the executive director of One Step Further, which runs the Cure Violence program for the city.
Holston has a long history of involvement in affordable housing. In the early 1990s, as an assistant vice president at Wells Fargo, he collaborated with the Guilford Native American Association and the City of Greensboro to provide affordable home loans and down payment assistance to low and moderate income homebuyers.
In 1994, Holston was a charter member of the Affordable Housing Community Resource board.
In the press release, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, “The city will benefit from Hugh’s knowledge and vast experience on housing services. The City Council will work with GHC to continue our priorities to address the needs of those in need of affordable housing. We congratulate him on this endeavor and look forward to what Hugh will achieve in this role.”
Holston – you want to make a name for yourself, get the majority of folks off of affordable housing and government programs. Nows the time to train the less fortunate for some of those jobs that are coming to the triad. Toyota, John Deere,boom etc…. Not all jobs require a degree especially assembly line work.
How convenient. Can’t wait to see more hokus pokus from this council.
Typical double standard by the worst city council in my 68 years of being born and raised in Greensboro. Recused from voting but not discussing. The city council is not and never will be anything but crooks.
Any definition of “affordable housing”? “Affordable” anything?
That’s like saying “affordable health insurance”. Any oxymoron by any definition.
Nothing to see here. Let’s make it 9 for 9 so all of our council members can fund their own salaries.
I need a photo for my dartboard.
Can we find some councilmembers that DON’T have any conflicts of interest?
Nope-
I’ve noticed in my lifetime that the biggest slumlords in the Triad, probably the nation, are democrats! They keep people impoverished and stir up racism, to get the gummint to pay the rent for their’ victims,imho
I am grateful Council Member Holston voted to preserve the loose-leaf collection program. If this program is in fact discontinued, we should challenge any grants made to any nonprofit organization or charity employing or led by any Council Member until the funding for leaf collection is restored. If we cannot afford leaf collection, we cannot afford subsidizing charities or nonprofits either. Also, since it now appears that the City is seeking private management for the Coliseum and other City facilities, perhaps we should consider the sale of these facilities to private owners, so that instead of providing endless tax subsidies to the facilities, we could invest the proceeds from the sales into an endowment fund which could be used exclusively for specified services, like loose-leaf collection.