5 Things to Know: Homelessness Continues to Rise in Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Homelessness Continues to Rise in Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg County Community Support Services released its annual State of Housing Instability and Homelessness (SoHIH) Report on Thursday. The report combines local, regional and national data across the housing continuum to serve as the foundation from which Charlotte-Mecklenburg leaders make decisions on the allocation of resources and development of systems of care.

The report consists of three main sections: homelessness, housing instability, and those stably housed in affordable housing. It presents data on the demand side of the housing continuum, from housing instability to homelessness, as well as the supply side, which includes all types of permanent, affordable housing.

The report covers aspects such as cost-burden, evictions, Point-in-Time Count, housing inventory, rental gaps, the Housing Trust Fund, and system performance metrics. New data this year includes information on substandard housing and survey data from the first ever Detention Center Point-in-Time Count. The next Point in Time count, in which volunteers spend the night documenting each person struggling with homelessness in Charlotte, is set to take place on Jan. 23.

The report found that, as of June 2024, there were 2,784 people in Mecklenburg County actively experiencing homelessness, a 3% increase from the 2,704 people who were recorded in June 2023. It also found that eviction filings increased 37% in the past year, resulting in an additional 13,000 Mecklenburg households at-risk of losing their homes and/or acquiring an eviction record.

Low-cost rentals are also disappearing, the report stated. Low-cost housing for low-income households now accounts for just 8% of the total housing stock, down from 45% in 2011. There is a 27,693-unit gap between rental units affordable for extremely low-income households who are at or below 30% of the area median income in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and how many people need them.

A lack of affordable housing and a growing rent-to-income gap contribute to the number of rental households in Mecklenburg County that are housing cost-burdened, meaning they spend 30% or more of their household income on housing costs. Sixty-one percent of renters earning less than $75,000 per year are cost-burdened.

“Addressing housing instability and homelessness typically requires a multifaceted approach that combines affordable housing initiatives, support services, mental health and addiction treatment, and employment opportunities, along with efforts to reduce discrimination and enhance tenant protections,” read a release from the county on Thursday. “As the community continues its mission and work through the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care and the A Home for All initiative to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring, progress in these areas is imperative and possible.”

Shelters Expand Capacity for Extreme Weather Event

Charlotte was dusted with a mall amount of snowfall on Friday evening, the first meaningful snowfall in three years, before the precipitation turned into sleet and freezing rain, which can still lead to unsafe conditions on the road and for our neighbors struggling with homelessness.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Emergency Management Office announced Thursday that it would implement extreme weather protocols from Friday to Sunday, including adding capacity at area homeless shelters.

Roof Above’s Day Services Center at 945 N. College St. will operate under normal hours of operation while Block Love Charlotte’s Day Services Center on North Graham Street will operate daily from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. to accommodate people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.

Hearts for the Invisible Coalition has deployed street outreach teams to homeless encampments to encourage anyone living unsheltered to visit a shelter and to provide information on how to access shelter. Roof Above and the Salvation Army Center of Hope are both operating with expanded capacity while CATS buses will transport individuals to these shelter locations free of charge Friday through Sunday.

Pizzagate Shooter IDed as Man Killed by Kannapolis Police

The Charlotte Observer reported Thursday that the man whom Kannapolis police shot and killed last weekend was the same man arrested in 2016 for terrorizing patrons of a restaurant that Pizzagate conspiracy theorists had tied to a made-up child sex trafficking ring.

According to a press release from the Kannapolis Police Department, two officers fired on Edgar Maddison Welch during a traffic stop in Kannapolis at around 10 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 4, after he allegedly pulled a gun on them when they asked him to exit the passenger seat of the vehicle he was sitting in. Welch died of his injuries on Monday.

In 2016, Welch drove from his home in Salisbury to Comet Ping Pong in Washington D.C. He carried an AR-15 and a revolver into the restaurant and fired shots at a closet door that he thought hid some type of basement where children were being assaulted. He reportedly spent 20 minutes searching the restaurant before leaving without his weapon and getting arrested. He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2017.

The press release states that the original officer who pulled over the vehicle did so because he recognized Welch’s car and knew that Welch had an an outstanding warrant for his arrest for a felony probation violation. Two more officers joined him at the scene before the shooting occurred.

“The officer who initiated the traffic stop approached the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the front passenger’s door to arrest the individual,” read the KPD release. “When he opened the door, the front seat passenger pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it in the direction of the officer. That officer and a second officer who was standing at the rear passenger side of the Yukon gave commands for the passenger to drop the gun. After the passenger failed to comply with their repeated requests, both officers fired their duty weapon at the passenger, striking him.”

Council Set to Vote on Pedestrian Bridge Monday

More than five and a half years since Charlotte City Council approved $1.2 million in funding for the design of a pedestrian bridge connecting Uptown to South End over I-277, they will finally get the chance to greenlight it’s construction on Monday, according to an agenda sent out by the city on Friday.

The 280-foot long bridge will run from the Brooklyn Village CATS station in Uptown to just above East Morehead Street, running parallel to the Blue Line, and will include a 16-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian concrete path, retaining walls and grading.

Funded in part by the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization, North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), Mecklenburg County and private contributors, the city will be expected to chip in another $16.3 million for the project.

The bridge is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2028.

App Allows Voters to See If Griffin Is Challenging Their Ballot

A new online tool can help North Carolinians see if their name is among the 60,000 voters whose ballots are being challenged by losing NC Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin in his ploy to overturn his election defeat, as we reported on Monday.

North Carolinians can go to the Common Cause North Carolina website to search their name and see if Griffin is trying to cancel their vote. The new online tool was created as a free public service by Apex Town Council member Terry Mahaffey.

“We thank Terry for making this useful tool available to the public,” stated Bob Phillips, Executive Director of the nonpartisan voting rights group Common Cause North Carolina, which has been raising awareness about Griffin’s outrageous ploy. “We encourage media outlets to promote this search tool as a way to help people find out if they’re among the thousands of North Carolina voters being unjustly challenged by Jefferson Griffin.”