Charlotte's growing homeless population has been largely unseen in the city's middle-class neighborhoods.

Yet that's exactly where an increasing number are moving, thanks to nonprofit efforts that are quietly taking the homeless out of the center city and placing them in rental homes throughout the county.

None of the programs has moved families beyond the Interstate 485 loop, but organizers say it's a matter of time.

Nearly 300 once-homeless families are living unnoticed in middle-class areas such as the Arboretum, Dilworth, the Park Road corridor and Plaza Midwood, where they have easier access to jobs and schools.

It's an approach vastly different from the community's long-standing tradition of keeping the homeless clustered in uptown, near shelters, soup kitchens and free clinics.

"It's a peaceful, quiet neighborhood and I love that neighbors don't treat me or my two children differently," said Nitza Ilarraza, 32, who lived in a shelter for six months before joining one of the nonprofit housing programs. She now lives in east Charlotte, near the Charlotte Museum of History. "I have a job like everybody else, take my children to school like everybody else, and take care of my house like everybody else. Nobody can tell I'm different."

That does not make the issue of scattering Charlotte's low-income population any less controversial.

Estimates put the county's homeless population at between 4,500 and 6,000, and the fastest rising category is intact families, which jumped 21 percent last year and 36 percent the year before.

This week, leaders in Charlotte's political, religious, nonprofit and corporate communities unveiled a year-long campaign aimed at reversing the trend. The effort will include mobilizing congregations into action, and a series of public forums.

Past protests

Recent efforts to build more affordable housing in outlying areas have been met by protests. And suburbanites were again on guard this week, after Mayor Anthony Foxx mentioned a new zoning approach that would encourage developers to build homes priced for the working poor.

Nonprofits like Charlotte Family Housing and the Salvation Army's Center of Hope are accomplishing the same thing by filling the community's already vacant apartments. However, their approach is so low-key that opposition has been virtually nonexistent.

Currently, the two nonprofits are working with nearly 300 homeless families who have been moved into homes paid for with short-term government subsidies.

The Men's Shelter of Charlotte has a slightly different concept. It expects to get more than 400 homeless men into homes this year, but in a more limited area to the north, northwest and east of uptown.

All three programs offer housing with an expectation that tenants will develop financial stability: Within six months to a year for the men's program, and within three years for the homeless families.

Charlotte Family Housing and the Salvation Army's Center of Hope both offer housing in exchange for what amounts to a life makeover. Tenants are paired with social workers, put on a budget, and must learn basics like how to manage their finances and get along with neighbors.

Charlotte Family Housing goes a step further by surrounding families with volunteers who act as an extended family, guiding them with daily advice and help.

"We've been placing homeless families in very nice neighborhoods for some time, and the people there have no idea this family is different from any other," said Darren Ash of Charlotte Family Housing. "If this program is done right, it should be invisible."

Reaction to plans

Recent proposals for affordable housing have been anything but low key, including a 2010 plan by the Charlotte Housing Authority to build 86 subsidized apartments in the Ballantyne area. The project, which drew a storm of protests, was eventually abandoned as financially unfeasible.

Bob Valente, who lives near Ballantyne, said it was a bad plan, but not a bad idea. He says suburbanites don't necessarily oppose low-income people moving nearby. But spreading needy people around doesn't help solve their problems, he said.

If nonprofit housing programs focus on helping homeless families develop job skills and find work, he suspects they may succeed where government agencies have failed.

"Should local governments run the apartment business? My personal opinion is no," Valente said.

"It sounds nice to say: Let's spread things out so everybody lives in different areas, but if you put a homeless family with no car in my neighborhood, they're going to have a tougher time than if they lived someplace closer to the services they need."

To date, Charlotte Family Housing says 70 percent of the families involved in its program have graduated to financial independence and are able to pay their own rent.

The program has partnered with 25 landlords around the city, and is aggressively seeking more, thanks to 50 additional housing vouchers recently provided by the housing authority.

Dawn Phillips said four homeless families are living in apartment complexes she manages and they're among the most compliant tenants.

"If one resident is late with a payment, I send an email (to Charlotte Family Housing) and they're on top of it. I wish I had the same kind of help with other residents who pay late every single month," Phillips said.

Selection criteria

Families selected for the Charlotte Family Housing program need to be working or have a strong work history.

The Center of Hope does not require immediate employment for the 60 families in its program, but expects them to develop jobs skills.

Center of Hope Director Deronda Metz prefers not to say where the families live.

"You don't want a segment of the population to move out because you have homeless people living nearby," she said. "Projects like this won't work unless you have apartments being leased by working class, mid-income people."

Advocates for scattering low-income housing say it affords struggling families a chance to live near jobs and better schools.

However, critics say such projects could "import" crime, reduce property values, and add children to already crowded schools.

The Charlotte Housing Authority has more than 5,000 people on waiting lists for traditional public housing and Section 8 vouchers. There are 2,600 waiting to get into mixed-income housing not managed by CHA.

Pam Wideman of the city's Neighborhood & Business Services division says the city could do more to help disperse affordable housing. She believes efforts like the Charlotte Family Housing program could help by easing concerns in middle-class neighborhoods.

Such programs also fall in line with a federal push to get the homeless into affordable housing as quickly as possible, she added.

"One of the things Charlotte Family Housing is doing is showing who actually needs affordable housing," Wideman said. "They are day care workers, Charlotte-Mecklenburg school teachers and city employees...They are the family living next door."

Staff researcher Maria David contributed.