Block Love Charlotte Faces Displacement Due to Massive Rent Hike

One of Charlotte’s most impactful service organizations for neighbors struggling with homelessness and financial vulnerability will soon be without a home itself, as Block Love Charlotte faces looming displacement from its Day Services Center on North Graham Street. 

Deborah Phillips, who founded Block Love CLT in 2020 and serves as its executive director, has launched a $250,000 crowdsourcing capital campaign after incoming ownership at the facility Block Love rents out to run its center informed her of a 300% rent increase planned for the spring. 

Phillips told Queen City Nerve she was “blindsided” by the revelation. The current property owners, EVCO Construction, told her they would likely not sell the building for at least another year as they waited for Red Line construction to begin, she said.

Instead, they’re expected to close on a sale to Colorado-based development firm LCP Management next week. LCP representatives told Phillips the rent hike will take effect in May. Currently paying $3,000 per unit for two units, Block Love will be asked to pay $12,000 per unit, raising rent from $6,000 per month to $24,000. 

“That is just something that is astronomical for us,” Phillips told Queen City Nerve. “That’s not anything that a nonprofit of our size could afford.” 

Now Phillips is asking for help from the community as she and her team look to secure a new space and rethink how they provide services. 

“We’ve done this through blood, sweat and tears, and I think now it’s time to regroup, rethink and just change up some things that we’ve been doing to better serve those that we say we’re trying to help the most,” Phillips said. 

How Block Love CLT serves the community

Block Love CLT has served more than 2.5 million meals and provided daily support to hundreds of neighbors experiencing homelessness and hardship across Charlotte. 

Phillips started serving dinners on Sunday nights at what was then Phifer Avenue in Uptown in 2017. During COVID, as services for people experiencing homelessness dried up, she and her fellow volunteers began serving nightly. 

Over the years, the area along the block-long street where Phillips and her team served, now named Montford Point Street, became known as “The Block.” She launched Block Love Charlotte in 2020 to formalize the work they were doing, not only serving meals but helping folks who needed hygiene products, clothing and other essentials. 

In 2024, Phillips opened the Block Love Day Services Center on North Graham Street, offering wraparound services ranging from internet access to job interview training to weekly grocery giveaways. 

The grocery giveaways, held every Friday in the parking lot of the Day Services Center, have expanded Block Love’s reach at a time when inflation has impacted everyone and hunger has become more prevalent. 

“When we are hosting these events, that is a way for us to connect with a community that may not know that we exist, that may need our services,” Phillips explained, “whether it’s somebody facing an eviction, whether it’s somebody that needs assistance with a utility, or even if it was someone that says, ‘Hey, listen, I know this person that is homeless and it’s a family member.’ They may not have known to reach out to us.” 

Health care workers with Alliance Health are present during grocery giveaways in case anyone needs mental health and wellness services. Care Ring, the longest operating low-cost health care clinic in Mecklenburg County, was setting up its mobile unit outside of Block Love CLT until moving into its new permanent space a mile down North Graham Street. 

Block Love team members still regularly refer folks down the street to receive services from Care Ring. 

“We help teachers, we help city workers, postal workers, even CATS bus drivers,” Phillips said of the clientele at the Day Services Center. “We help anybody in the city; it’s not just our houseless neighbors.” 

Block Love CLT commits to continuing work despite displacement

Moving forward, Phillips said it is her goal to find a new location for the Day Services Center. Having already raised more than $9,000 through crowdsourcing plus a $17,500 donation from an anonymous donor this week, she’s in a good place to start looking but there’s a long way to go to get to $250,000. 

Taking into consideration the skyrocketing rents across the city and the effects of burnout after six years of working at full tilt on a daily basis, Phillips said this move may provide an opportunity to make some changes in how the organization operates.

“We haven’t decided what that looks like, but we do know we’re going to have to scale back a little bit so that we can give the attention that is needed to certain areas,” she explained, “especially when it comes to jobs and how people can make a better living wage so they can afford somewhere to live in Charlotte.” 

On her GoFundMe page, Phillips breaks down where the money will go if the goal is reached down to the dollar: $40,000 is needed for rent and relocation fees; $50,000 for programming; $25,000 for transportation assistance; $100,000 for staffing; and so on.  

Phillips acknowledged that Block Love recently lost its tax-exempt status due to delinquent IRS filings, though she insisted the company has submitted all required paperwork and is awaiting word on reinstatement of that status. 

“I feel it’s very, very, very, very important because of what we do in the community to be transparent, even to a point that it has hurt me,” Phillips said, adding that she is regularly denigrated by others in her field and has become aware of rumors spreading this week that she plans to leave the organization. 

“I’m not going to step away from something I built,” she said. “It hurts, but the work will continue, whatever that looks like, and we will continue to support those in the community. It’s not going to stop, it’s just going to change, and we’ve got to welcome that change. A lot of places and people change, but I think it’s going to be for the better for Block Love Charlotte.” 

Visit the Block Love Charlotte website to learn more about the organization and check out the GoFundMe campaign to hear straight from Deborah Phillips and donate.