In frigid temperatures, volunteers connect with Charlotte’s rising homeless population
In the still and quiet hours before sunrise Thursday, Maurice Reid was a kinetic and infectious ball of passion.
Armed with a big smile, drawstring bags filled with basic goods, sleeping bags and a tote of hot breakfast sandwiches, Reid was ready to step out into the bitter cold in uptown to make good on a promise.
“I was an unhoused veteran last year,” Reid said. “After I got back on my feet, I made a vow that no veteran was going to suffer like I did.”
The vow led him to volunteer for Mecklenburg County’s annual Point-In-Time Count, where volunteers survey and count individuals experiencing sheltered or unsheltered homelessness. It’s a nationwide event that takes place in January and is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Reid joined two other volunteers, along with team leader Deborah Phillips, the executive director of Block Love CLT, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the unhoused.
On Graham Street
Around 5:30 a.m. and with temperatures in the high teens, Reid drove to Block Love’s facility at 2738 N. Graham St. The plan was to hop in Phillips’ van and drive along the corridor.
Phillips is familiar with the area. She moved Block Love’s operation from a mobile outreach team that used to focus on areas like “The Wall” near North College Street and Montford Point Street to the brick and mortar on Graham Street in 2022. The Wall is an area where the unhoused congregate.
She still heads to The Wall to provide basic goods. But on Graham Street, Phillips hosts food drives and nightly dinners for her unhoused neighbors.
Phillips said she wasn’t expecting to see many people outside. She had already helped many of them into shelter and away from the cold, especially because the population in that area tends to be older.
“Many people grew up here so it’s a place of familiarity and that brings them back,” Phillips said. “There’s also a little bit more options than uptown. They can fly more under the radar.”
The Graham Street corridor is filled with lumberyards and trucking sites. Some of the businesses work with the unhoused, letting them stay onsite if they keep the area clean, Phillips said.
Driving slow on the side streets, intermittently listening to country western, the only station the sprinter van gets Phillips said with a chuckle, the team peered into doorways and dead-ends where some people set up camp.
Random shopping carts, laundry baskets and bundles of clothes were scattered in the empty crevices indicating the space was once someone’s home, though no one was there.
The burgundy behemoth of a van headed to Moore Place, a permanent supportive housing facility run by Roof Above, a nonprofit that provides shelter and resources for the unhoused.
“Some may have lost their space and that might be why they’re out here,” Phillips said. “Or some may camp near here because a friend stays there.”
Near the facility, Reid interviewed a 32-year-old woman huddled in a doorway. A wooden pallet burned in front of her providing minimal heat. She’s been unhoused for about five years.
During the interview, a man named Leon said he checks on her every now and then. They both grew up in the area.
“Everybody is going through something,” Leon said.
Phillips agreed, telling both of them to stop by Block Love later in the day for some oatmeal, grits and tea.
“They got the fire but you don’t feel that thing unless you are right there,” Phillips said .“Her hands were freezing.”
“She’s so young,” Reid added. “It hurt my heart.”
Reid said the topic of homelessness is a “nuanced conversation.”
“You’ll have people who are highly educated and they just had a tough time,” Reid said. “People have to stop thinking that people are homeless and crazy. A lot of people want to get help but there’s not a lot of resources there.”
Homelessness in Mecklenburg
Homelessness is on the rise in the county. As of November, there were 3,233 people experiencing homelessness in Mecklenburg, according to the county’s housing dashboard.
There were 384 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the county, per last year’s PIT count. That’s an increase of about 33% from 2023, according to the county’s State of Housing report.
There’s some caveats to the number, said Karen Pelletier, director of the county’s Housing Innovation and Stabilization Services.
In general, PIT counts aren’t completely reliable because the unhoused population is typically transient. Some people may not be outside during the count, others may avoid the count because of fear or mistrust, and volunteers may miss some areas.
The latter is something the county has worked heavily on, Pelletier said. In recent years, the count has expanded into Davidson, Pineville, Steele Creek and Mint Hill.
To Camp North End
Back in the van, Phillips said sometimes people set up near construction areas of Camp North End or between the mall and the nearby ABC Store.
The hub was illuminated. Spotlights shined on murals and the back doors of businesses. Stringlights were hung in the sitting areas. No one was around.
“Camp North End security rides through here all the time, so some of them try to find little nooks and crannies to get into so they won’t be bothered,” Phillips said. “But the owner of Camp North End, when he first came to the city, I think the city told him to reach out to me and he did. We’ve given him our information to let the businesses know that the unhoused neighbors can contact us.
“He said he didn’t want to run them off the property or make them feel not welcomed and I thought that was big of him.”
Phillips slowed near a large field of tall grass. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police escort filled the space with his floodlight. Nothing was visible.
But up the block Phillips saw Antonio Williams, whom she calls Capone. He lives in an encampment with his wife and dog.
Clad in fatigues and an eye patch, Williams was on his way home from work but stopped to be surveyed. He said housing costs were a major burden, along with transportation needs and the slow process of being accepted into affordable housing.
Phillips has known Capone for some time.
“I actually married him and his wife,” Phillips smiled. “A brewery on North Tryon let us use the venue. Somebody donated flowers. Someone else donated her dress… The community just came together and I’m a minister so I was able to marry them and man, it was such a beautiful ceremony. Capone and Kelly. They are so sweet.”
Capone and his wife are chronically homeless, meaning they’ve experienced homelessness for more than a year. They’ve also experienced homelessness more than once.
Phillips has seen Capone and his wife enter into housing, only to lose it because they can’t afford it. They were placed in a housing program during COVID, but Phillips said some of these programs didn’t last long. Coupled with low wages, housing became unaffordable.
“They both work but it’s too expensive,” Phillips said. “What do you do? People literally opt for what they are doing. Tenting it out until something better comes along. It’s crazy how many couples or working guys, who work every single day, 10- to 12-hour shifts, have to go to a cold tent at night.”
Rising housing costs
Nearly half of the renters in the county are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income toward housing costs, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s due to rising housing costs, stagnant wages and a decrease in low-cost rentals.
In the last decade, the inflation-adjusted median monthly rent has increased 41%, according to the county’s State of Housing report, going from $1,174 to $1,660.
A worker earning minimum wage, $7.25, would need to work more than 147 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom, the report reads. The average one-bedroom rental goes for about $1,467, according to Apartments.com.
To dive into the numbers further, the county lost 74% of its low-cost housing stock between 2011 and 2023, the housing report adds.
The county is short 27,693 units for those making 30% of the area median income. For a family of four, that’s about $31,800.
“It’s just too expensive,” Phillips said. “The downside to this job, for instance, seeing Capone and knowing they were in housing and then they’re not. That’s what makes this job so hard, when you see individuals back outside. It’s heart-breaking.”
The count continues
Phillips’ group didn’t encounter many people outside. That was the county’s hope, said Mary Ann Priester, Mecklenburg’s Housing and Homelessness Data and Research Coordinator and PIT count coordinator.
Liz Clasen-Kelly, CEO of Roof Above, echoed the sentiment. But her group spoke with about a dozen people along North Tryon Street. She was surprised at the totals, given the temperature and the county’s extreme weather protocols that allow shelters to create overflow space.
A man along the group’s route was found dead, and a cause of death has not been confirmed. CMPD said the incident is under investigation.
“For anyone to die in a time of crisis and without a safe, stable place to live, it’s a tragedy,” Clasen-Kelly said. “Everyone will die, but you don’t want anyone to die alone and outside.”
Two hours into the count, which went on until 6 p.m., volunteers encountered around 150 people throughout the county. That number is preliminary and official numbers won’t be released until May.
“We were thinking that we would see fewer people outside because of the weather and because of the additional capacity at the shelter,” Priester said. “If we stay on trend with what we’re seeing now, then we may surpass our numbers from last year.
“But it’s also possible that with day centers open like Roof Above and Block Love, we’ll encounter less people in the afternoon.”
The fight continues
Driving back to the PIT count’s headquarters at the County Services Center, Reid put on Maxwell’s “Fortunate,” a love song mainly, but a feeling Reid was experiencing.
“I feel refreshed and energized to do my duty. To handle this situation so folks don’t become homeless ever again,” Reid said.
He recently started a nonprofit that will provide peer support, Suited for Vets, and he also works for the county’s Continuum of Care program, a nationwide initiative to end homelessness.
For him, that goal is both personal and a necessity. As he continued talking, and Maxwell continued singing, Reid was still cheery and the smile didn’t waiver.
Charlotte is changing and so is the country, he said, and he plans to remain passionate.
“I remember Charlotte used to be nothing but dirt roads with wild turkeys,” Reid said. “Now it’s expanded to a major metropolitan city. But as Charlotte is growing, so should its consciousness for helping out the less fortunate…
“The number one thing to worry about is what’s going to happen to the little guy.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 5:45 AM.
