Housing

A new report from the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute presents research on family homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Family homelessness is complicated, can result in negative impacts on educational outcomes for students and requires custom interventions based on each family’s unique needs. The report, released March 2, presents national research on factors associated with family homelessness, the […]

Are Millennials really so different from other generations? When it comes to housing preferences and opinions, the answer seems to be: Yes. And no. A ULI Charlotte survey prepared by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute that was released Thursday of Charlotte region residents asking about views on housing, transportation and community found some commonalities among […]

To download full report, click on image above What are other communities doing to address the need to develop affordable housing in their communities? A new report from the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, released Wednesday, presents 12 strategies other cities are using to develop affordable housing, with a focus on the financial feasibility of developing […]

Matthew Desmond has authored a scrupulously researched, stimulating and compelling book that should be of interest to everyone in the apartment industry, every low-income housing advocate, any student of American neighborhoods and every public official. Examinations of urban poverty are nothing new, but this study of the causes and consequences of evictions on families, housing […]

For workers in Mecklenburg County, it has become even harder to afford housing, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s latest Out of Reach report. The 2016 report documents the gap between wages and fair market rents (for standard-quality rental units) in communities across the United States.[i] The fair market rent takes into account […]

The most recent count of homelessness in Mecklenburg County—undertaken on one night in January— found overall homelessness had decreased by 36 percent since 2010. The same count also found a 9 percent decrease since last year, even as the county’s total population grew. Click on image to download the full report. The findings are outlined […]

For many decades, the complex and difficult challenges of housing low-income Charlotteans have been the source of local studies, public debate, public policy formation and a variety of actions. This short paper is intended to trace the evolution of the challenges in Charlotte and the responses to them, with an eye toward the future for […]

The old planners’ joke is that Americans hate two things for their cities—urban sprawl and high density. The joke, of course, is that developing at low densities, such as one house per acre or half acre, spreads the same amount of housing across more acreage—in other words, sprawl. Higher-density development—typically multifamily—has been a topic of […]

Almost half the Mecklenburg County households who rent are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their gross income on housing costs. One significant contributing factor is that from 2008 to 2013, the median gross rent in the county increased 2 percent, while median family income decreased by 12 percent. Those are two […]

How is Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s homeless population changing? The new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Point in Time Count for 2009-2015 describes who experienced homelessness, both sheltered and unsheltered (living in a place unfit for human habitation) on a given night in Mecklenburg County. This annual count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It can help […]