HOMELESSNESS and HOUSING: "My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:18). This is not a reality in Charlotte.
Many of our fellow citizens have not had the opportunity to find “secure dwellings” due to a history of poverty, race-based deed restrictions, discriminatory lending practices, strict zoning codes, and more. Charlotte has families struggling to meet their rent, and individuals on the street because of a lost job, an unexpected illness, and mental health issues. They are all our brothers and sisters in Christ. As such, we are called to address the systems, economies, and injustices that led to wrongs of the past – and to work together to ensure access to affordable housing for all our neighbors in the future.
READ
-
Evicted - Matthew Desmond
-
The Color of Money - Mehrsa Baradaran
-
The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
-
Sorting Out the New South City: Race, Class and Urban Development in Charlotte - Tom Hanchett
-
Same Kind of Different as Me - Ron Hall and Denver Moore
-
Mona Lisa’s Checklist - Axios Charlotte article about a homeless woman’s quest to get a job
-
Charlotte-Mecklenburg 2020 State of Housing Instability and Homelessness report
WATCH
-
CBS This Morning story (7:21) by Tony Dokoupil about how his family benefited from housing policies that were denied to Black Americans, how these policies contributed to the wealth and housing gap, and what can be done about it.
-
Living Room Learning Panel Discussion (1:24:29) on October 22, 2020: Local agency and civic leaders talk about the crisis of adequate affordable housing and evictions in Charlotte. The panel features Tommy Holderness, FPC member, Legal Aid of North Carolina Attorney; Floyd Davis, FPC Member, President and CEO of Community Link NC; Tchernavia Montgomery, Chief Program Officer at Crisis Assistance Ministry; and Kim Graham, Association Director of Greater Charlotte Apartment Association
LISTEN
-
Freakonomics podcast – Why are Cities (Still) so Expensive? (44.54)
-
Fresh Air – First-Ever Evictions Database Shows: ‘We’re in the Middle of a Housing Crisis’ (36:00)
-
Stuff You Should Know podcast – How Housing Discrimination Works (59:00)
DO
-
Volunteer at Roof Above to make and fill soup cups and assemble lunch bags to be picked up by visitors at their College Street campus. Contact Flo Bryan.
-
Support programs that provide rent and utility subsidies and work in other ways to stabilize housing
-
Support efforts to eliminate source of income discrimination (i.e. housing vouchers).
-
Support rezoning initiatives that increase the quantity of and access to affordable housing, especially in higher opportunity neighborhoods.
-
Support efforts around rapid re-housing and permanent supportive housing for people leaving homelessness.
GET TO KNOW: Programs addressing Homelessness/Affordable Housing currently supported by FPC funds and/or volunteers:
-
Charlotte Family Housing – provides shelter and wraparound supportive services for families experiencing homelessness
-
Community Link – provides a continuum of services designed to help people go from homelessness to homeownership, with support at every step of the way.
-
Crisis Assistance Ministry – provides emergency rent and utility assistance to prevent homelessness
-
Habitat Charlotte – helps families build and improve places to call home with mortgages that are affordable
-
McCreesh Place - apartment building on N. Davidson Street houses 90 formerly homeless men and women. McCreesh Place was Charlotte’s first permanent supportive housing community.
-
Roof Above (formerly Urban Ministry and Men's Shelter) - provides street outreach and basic services for the homeless as well as shelter, housing and support services.
-
YWCA Transitional Housing - provides housing and support services for single unaccompanied women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.