Making homelessness ‘rare’ in Mecklenburg: 4 takeaways from budding plan
Leaders behind the massive effort to overhaul how public and private entities address homelessness in Mecklenburg County offered this week the first public look at their strategic plan.
The goal is succinct, albeit bold: making Mecklenburg “a community where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring, and every person has access to permanent, affordable housing and the resources to sustain it.”
Getting there will be more complicated.
In April, top leaders of the area’s government, housing, health care, business and nonprofit groups announced their intention to create the 2025 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing and Homelessness Strategy. Leading the effort are Atrium Health CEO Gene Woods and Cathy Bessant, vice chair of global strategy at Bank of America.
There are more than 3,100 people experiencing homelessness in Mecklenburg County, according to county data.
The strategic plan is not yet finalized, and will be followed by a plan outlining how it will be implemented.
Here are four takeaways from Tuesday’s update to county commissioners:
Preventing homelessness
“Prevention always wins and yet prevention is the hardest thing to do,” Bessant said, adding that it is often more difficult to secure funding for efforts that prevent homelessness than remedy it.
Recommendations include expanding rental assistance and legal help for people at risk of losing their homes through eviction.
It’s essential, leaders say, also to focus on preventing homelessness and the particular needs of people with disabilities, veterans, a substance use history or criminal record.
New ideas
The strategic plan outlines several new recommendations for its goals of preventing homelessness, strengthening the emergency shelter system and increasing affordable housing.
Many would be new for Charlotte. They include:
- Creating a policy for acquiring hotels to be turned into permanent supportive housing
Incentivize construction and sale of homes for first-time homebuyers
Implement developer incentives for affordable housing such as fee waivers and expedited inspections
Who will “own the work”?
Yet to be determined is who and how this effort will be implemented. Bessant said the idea of creating a new nonprofit was unpopular, and that discussions are still underway for “who will own the work.”
Whether that is an existing organization or a government body like the county, has not been decided.
Dena Diorio, the county manager, said that decision is crucial.
“Unless somebody gets up every day, working this plan, it’s not going to happen,” she said.
How much will it cost?
Also undetermined is an estimated cost to reach these goals.
It was hard, as a banker, “to not jump to jump to the numbers,” Bessant said. That figure was not part of Tuesday’s presentation, but will be in the implementation plan, which is expected in the next 90 to 120 days.
“We want to let the work drive the money,” she said, and then determine where additional funding is needed and potential sources, including the private sector.
The release of the plan was delayed from its initial October date. A final version of the strategic plan is expected to be released publicly in January, followed up a plan outlining implementation.
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