Charlotte housing initiative pairs with nonprofit to fight homelessness crisis
When James Lee thinks of Charlotte’s affordable housing and homelessness crises, he thinks of the “Wizard of Oz.”
The shining emerald castle and the wizard’s booming voice is the facade the tale’s protagonist, Dorothy, thinks is keeping her from returning to Kansas — when all along she just had to click her sparkling red heels together and say, “There’s no place like home.”
Formerly homeless and now solving housing problems, Lee said he’s seen policy makers pulling levers to create smoke and mirrors like the wizard — all in the name of progress in the Queen City.
Lee says the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing and Homelessness Strategy Initiative, if successful, will pull back the velvet curtain and reveal the solution. Launched in 2021, it includes all the outreach, affordable housing construction, rehabilitation and support services he knows works and the private sector money to back it, said Lee, who works with the initiative.
The initiative hopes by 2026 to “better position Charlotte-Mecklenburg as a community where homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring, and where every person has access to permanent, affordable housing as well as the resources to sustain it.”
The joint public-private strategy on Thursday announced the United Way of Central Carolinas is the lead nonprofit for the initiative. The 90-year-old organization “fights for the education, health and stability of every person” in Charlotte, its website states.
“In Charlotte, we talk a lot. I want to see action,” Lee said. “This is an effort to get the private sector and the community at the same table.”
To Lee, that’s Dorothy’s one-way ticket home.
Assessing Charlotte’s housing crisis
Mecklenburg County on March 31 had 3,029 people experiencing homelessness, including 500 who have been homeless for more than a year, Mecklenburg housing data show.
The initiative on Thursday also announced its “enduring structure” — the different support groups the United Way will lead to meet the initiative’s goals of reducing the risk and longevity of homelessness in Charlotte. That may sound like jargon, but officials say it means the task force doesn’t have a defined end.
.png "image (5).png")
The enduring structure is made up of:
Mecklenburg County government
Faith community
Private businesses
Advocacy groups
Nonprofit sector
The structure also includes an advisory council and technical committee, both including people with homelessness experience.
“We have never been at the table and now we’re at the table and they’re listening to us,” Lee said. “I don’t want 2027 to come around and we still have 3,000 people on the street.”
Erin Barbee, chief strategy officer for affordable housing nonprofit DreamKey Partners, said Charlotte’s housing and homelessness spheres have been in separate silos until now. Barbee sees the enduring structure as a “radical step.”
“We saw that there was a need for the alignment between the world of homelessness and affordable housing,” Barbee said.
The initiative is in its first phase and does not yet include a funding request or specific actionable initiatives — the implementation will be led by the United Way.
So far, the public and private sector have raised more than $327 million toward affordable housing initiatives in Mecklenburg County since 2018, Mecklenburg housing data show.
Charlotte’s housing instability by the numbers
34,299 - The number of rental households in Charlotte that are severely cost-burdened. This means the renters are paying more than 50% of their income on housing.
15,884 - The number of severely cost-burdened owner-occupied households.
3,029 people are experiencing homelessness in Charlotte.
361 - The average number of days it takes for a homeless individual in Charlotte to find permanent housing.
23,022 - The number of units needed to fill the housing shortage for Charlotte’s lowest earners - those earning below 30% of the area median income, meaning $25,250 household income for a family of four, or $17,700 for a single person.
More information can be found at mecklenburghousingdata.org.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 4:30 PM.
