- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(uplifting music) - Just ahead, prices high, inventory low.

Factor in inflation, and there's nowhere to go.

We're talking about Charlotte's affordable housing crisis, the pandemic worsening an already existing problem.

The numbers are staggering, more than 28,000 people behind on rent, another 3,000 plus homeless.

We're talking with leaders fighting to keep people off the streets, and we're answering questions from our live studio audience, exploring solutions together as a community.

Our special "Carolina Impact" town hall starts right now.

(slow dramatic music) - [Announcer] PBS Charlotte presents a special "Carolina Impact, Seeking Unity."

- Good evening.

Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Amy Burkett.

It's no secret there's a severe shortage of affordable housing in Charlotte.

Research shows more than 23,000 affordable rentals are needed right now.

The pandemic has exposed problems that were hidden before, and now millions of dollars are being allocated to prevent evictions, but is it enough?

We're digging into this important issue with a community conversation.

First, let's take a look at the data and hear one woman's story.

(hammers bang) (gentle pleasant music) For Chevon Faulkner, owning a home is a dream come true.

- Yeah, by March 2022, I'll be a homeowner.

The home will be finished.

- [Amy] with a little muscle from students at Olympic High School and the support of the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity, pretty soon, Chevon and her son will finally have their own place.

- Life changing is an understatement.

- [Amy] Within the last 18 months, the lack of safe and affordable housing forced Chevon to move nine times.

At one point she was homeless, and even though she had a Section 8 voucher, no landlord was willing to accept it.

- Where I live now is subpar, subpar.

- [Amy] A recent report released by Mecklenburg County reveals the pandemic has exacerbated housing instability and homelessness, minority and low-income households hit the hardest.

According to the report, the population in Charlotte increased by 20% between 2010 and 2019, but the demand for housing hasn't decreased.

There are fewer low cost rentals, evictions are up, households are spending more on housing than what's affordable, and homelessness jumped by 55% since June 2020.

- I don't know if any of y'all ever been homeless or like put out your house or not had enough 'cause your parents made the wrong decisions.

I had that too many times, and then me being the parent, I've done that too many times.

- [Amy] The average cost for a one-bedroom apartment in Charlotte is just over $1,000.

Rent is just over $1,500 a month for a three bedroom.

The lack of affordable rental units has led to more than 83,000 households feeling cost burdened, meaning they're spending more than 30% of their income on rent, and for those making a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, you'd only be able to afford $377 in rent or work 116 hours a week just to afford a one bedroom.

(hammers bang) (muffled chatter) For Chevon, it's a sobering reality she's thankful she's finally overcome.

- I feel very fortunate, very fortunate.

(gentle pleasant music) - Let's meet our panelists right now.

We begin with Dr. Patrick Graham.

He's the CEO of the Concord Family Enrichment Association, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding affordable housing.

A recent study showed Concord needs at least 3,000 more units to meet the housing demand.

Dr. Graham, where are we in that process right now?

- Well, right now, working with partners actually across the county to develop what we call a regional housing framework so that we're all on the same page.

The other is is that we're actually building properties but also purchasing land to hold for affordable housing in perpetuity.

You can throw that 3,000 number out the door, though, because since the census has come in, it's actually a lot more.

- Do we know how much more approximately?

Are we in the thousands more or?

- It could probably be about four to 5,000 right now.

It's very hard to determine because Concord's the fastest growing city in North Carolina, 8th in the nation.

- Dr. Graham, thank you so much.

We'll have more with you in a moment.

Liz Clasen-Kelly is the CEO of Roof Above, which works to end homelessness.

The latest housing data shows homelessness is up 55%, as we learned in that package.

Liz, what can we do to reverse this trend?

- Yeah, so you can't untangle homelessness from the affordable housing crisis, and so we have to find ways to grow affordable housing in our community.

That means public policy.

That means innovative housing solutions.

We just bought a hotel.

We're converting it to housing.

We bought bought an older apartment complex.

So we have to link the solution to homelessness to housing.

Right now, less than 22% of our apartments are renting for less than $800 a month.

- So many challenges.

Also joining us now is Julie Porter, president of DreamKey Partners, which is delivering a million dollars a week in rental assistance.

Her organization has received more than 21,000 applications for rental assistance this year.

Julie, that's such a huge number.

How many have you actually been able to help, and where's that money coming from?

- Right, well, most of the money comes from the federal government through some of the stimulus money that has come down.

We've been able to help about 9,000 families and deliver just this year about $47 million in rental assistance, but there's still a huge need.

Right now, we have about $53 million left, and there's a big pipeline, especially with the eviction crisis.

- Thank you so much.

Our final panelist is Amy Anderson, a mother of two and founder of AnderBerry Bracelets, a business she created with her son.

Amy is a college graduate who has struggled over the years with this issue.

At one point, she was homeless after leaving an abusive relationship.

Amy, what was the most challenging part about housing during that difficult time for you?

- The most challenging part about that is having children along with yourself and having to really maintain a stable mental and physical outlook on the situation.

You almost tend to lose yourself when you tend to struggle and survive.

- Thank you so much.

Well, two years ago, Amy shared her story at a meeting on homelessness.

She was going through an eviction at the time, and a Salvation Army member approached her about a program offering to subsidize 65% of her rent for two years.

Let's take a look at her current situation.

Amy's total income is about $2,200 a month.

She lives with her son in a two-bedroom apartment in the university area.

Now the normal rent is about $1,350 a month.

Thanks to the subsidy, she pays $550 a month.

If she didn't have the subsidy, she would have less than $850 a month to live on.

Now, Amy, your subsidy runs out in about two months.

Do you have a plan?

What's next?

- Yes, actually as of this past week, some things have transpired where I'm able to actually become employed full time, getting back into the field of property management that I had worked 20-plus years ago.

And with being able to work for a property management company, I'm able to get a discounted rent as an associate.

So keeping my fingers crossed everything will work out and I'll be starting this position later this month.

- A success story.

Amy, thank you so much for being here because so many times, people don't recognize or realize the face of someone dealing with homelessness, so thank you for your bravery of sharing this story, and we're so excited that things are looking up for you.

Well, right now I wanna turn to Julie.

How's your organization helping people at this time prevent eviction?

- We are delivering the rental assistance program for the city and the county.

So we are just starting a program where we're actually in the courthouse, working with prosecutors and judges and making sure that if people are right in the throes of an eviction, that they can get rental assistance pretty much on the spot.

But we also reprioritized all of the rental assistance applications so that people who are facing eviction go to priority one and they get paid first.

- What a great thing.

We've gotta tackle it some way.

Well, earlier this year, Tent City was cleared out because of rodents.

A lot of homeless were moved into hotels.

Liz, how's your organization working to create long-term, sustainable opportunities for these folks?

- Yeah, the north end encampment really caught the attention of this community because people could see and feel the realities of homelessness in a new way.

When it had to be cleared, we had 72 to clear it, and so it was a really phenomenal collaboration led by Mecklenburg County.

Nonprofits where there.

Grassroots groups were there.

In three days, we moved 214 people from the streets into a motel.

Those motels have closed down or they've changed locations, so we've had, of those 214 people, about 50 folks moved to housing and another 50 on their way.

And so some people look at that and say, "Well, that's not that much," but the average length of time someone was homeless from that encampment was about two and a half years.

So we have seen people with many barriers, often struggling with mental health and substance use, find housing, really through programs that meet people where they are.

Let's say, "Let's go ahead and get you in housing and surround you with support instead of having to jump through a ton of hoops before you can move into housing."

- And we can never lose track of the fact that for the people you've helped, those 50 people, it is life changing, world changing for them.

So we have to celebrate the victories, even if they're small victories.

Well, the housing report says blacks and Latinos were especially hard hit.

Research shows discrimination plays a role in the decline of minority home ownership.

Dr. Graham, talk to us a little bit.

What percentage of the problem do you think is associated with this?

- Well, race plays a large part, more than we would like to think.

So let me just give you one data point.

When it comes to lending, for example, African Americans are 80% more likely, the highest group, more likely not to get a loan when all things are equal, meaning they have the same credit score, same income.

And that study came out of Marketplace, and Department of Justice is now investigating more financial institutions around this.

The other thing you gotta consider is that even when you talk about issues of poverty, 2/3 of African Americans who live in poverty actually live in high poverty areas whereas only 1/3 of whites who are in high poverty live in high poverty areas.

So you can clearly see that there's a racial divide there.

Red lining is still here and is still present with us to this day.

- So many things that we need to work through, but we wanna get to some community questions.

Before the program began, we asked our audience members to write their questions for our panelists.

So I've got some for you right now, and we're gonna have some more questions, but this we're gonna start with Steven Neal, who is from Charlotte, who wrote this question.

"What can the average Charlotte team do that would have a meaningful impact and help improve access to affordable housing in our city?"

And if we can have short answers and just run down through the list, I'm gonna begin with you, Dr. Graham, if you don't mind.

- Well, I think we gotta think in terms of equitable housing as much as affordable housing.

So I think one of the things that you can do is really talk to your elected officials, your local ones, about your desire for them to have a real robust, affordable, and equitable housing policy and program.

- Liz, your thoughts?

- So I would completely concur policy has to be part of the solution, but I would also say, I think the way we move policy is when people are in relationship with folks who are experiencing housing crisis and they recognize that everyone's a human being deserving of dignity and deserving of a safe space to live.

And so when we really recognize the humanity of our neighbors, that's when policy, I think, can really move.

- Julie, what do you think?

What can the average person do to help?

- Well, I'm gonna build on what Dr. Graham said because I think what would very much help is when we do have a rezoning, when there is something that's coming up that says, "We wanna build affordable housing in a high-opportunity part of Charlotte," we need support.

We need support from the community.

Come out.

Come to the city council meeting and say, "We really wanna see this happen," because everybody deserves to live in an area that provides them opportunity.

- Thank you.

Amy, I wanna hear from you, and it's so special because you've lived it.

What can the community do to help folks like you?

- Well, I would say just keep your ears open and listen to individuals and families that are going through homelessness and housing insecurity.

And for those that are actually experiencing it or on that borderline of housing insecurity is share your story.

Confide in someone that you trust that has connections and resources that can point you in the right direction.

- Excellent.

We've got another question, my friends.

This one comes from Nan Walker, who's also from Charlotte, and she wants to know, "How have you grown from your experience of being homeless?"

And of course, this is for Amy.

- Sure.

Well, I think one of the largest ways I've grown is being able to tap into my mental state.

When you're surviving and scratching and homeless and housing insecure, it's very easy for you to physically, health problems can enter into the picture, and mainly just to be able to have resources, therapy.

I sought therapy for quite some time, and I'm just very open and transparent.

So that's pretty much what I learned is to maintain my integrity.

- And you've gotta be one strong mama.

- Definitely.

(laughs) My kids definitely motivate me and inspire me.

- [Amy] How old are your kids now?

- My daughter is 21 and my son is 15.

- Thank you so much for sharing your story.

I've got another question from our audience.

This one comes from Monica DeClay, and she's from the Plaza-Midwood area, and she wants to know where the affordable housing will be placed in the city.

And so let's talk a little bit.

Liz, what are you seeing?

- Yeah, so that's an issue because part of what makes housing affordable is what it costs to build it, and land prices are increasing and land prices are increasing everywhere.

So there's really very limited options to build actual, true, affordable housing without significant subsidy.

But as Julie mentioned, what we also see is not just the cost of housing.

It's the neighborhood pushback sometimes, and so we use this phrase NIMBY, Not in My Back Yard.

But we've seen in other cities, a YIMBY movement, Yes in My Back Yard, so communities mobilizing together and saying, "We want affordable housing in our community.

We want diversity in our community.

We want to see a wide variety of price points."

So there's a lot of policy work we can do to spread out affordable housing, but then there's also just ways to, we've gotta get more quantity of affordable housing in our community as well.

- You talked about that NIMBY.

How can we change some of the unexpected thoughts?

Like people have misconceptions.

How can we dispel some of those misconceptions?

- So I think often, you see people use facts and figures, right?

There's actually great research that says there's lots of reasons not to fear affordable housing being in your community, and yet the role of fear is interesting because facts and figures often aren't what change people minds, and that's why I really encourage relationships.

So I think what we see, we're the owners and operators of Moore Place.

There was a lot of neighborhood resistance when we first built Moore Place when we first- - Help people understand what town that's on.

- Yes, Moore Place is in the Druid Hills community.

So when we first built it, there was neighborhood resistance.

When we expanded it, the neighborhood was the first in line to say, "We support this.

We understand the life-changing opportunity this is for people and these are our neighbors."

And so I do think once you create affordable housing and build relationships, that tension can often dissipate.

- Thank you.

Julie, Your thoughts about this.

How can we help people understand so that we can get involved and where this affordable housing might be located?

- Well, I agree with Liz.

I don't know that you can change people's minds, but I do think you can move their hearts.

And as you are letting people get to know each other, suddenly people realize everybody wants the same thing.

They want an opportunity-filled life.

They want their kids to go to a good school.

Everybody, at their heart, is the same, and if we can just remember that as a community, I think it will be much more welcoming.

- Excellent.

Dr. Graham, I'm gonna let you have the last word on this question.

- I do believe that you have to pull on heart strings, but I also think you have to appeal to people's self interest.

And one of the things that this housing crisis reveals to us is that it can be very damaging, actually, to the development of talent in our communities.

And if we look statistically at where our nation is going in terms of population, you're gonna have to have individuals who are from black and brown communities as well as white communities thrive in order for us to be competitive.

And so oftentimes, I actually relate that to self interest as well as appealing to their heart strings because I don't think that there's just one formula.

- Yeah.

Excellent.

Our final question from our audience right now comes from Toya Bailey, who works at Truliant Federal Credit Union, and she wants to know, "How do you feel about the new NOAH initiative?"

So who wants to grab this first?

- Well, I'll let Liz grab that one first 'cause she has a bunch of properties.

- (laughs) So NOAH refers - Help people- - to natural naturally occurring affordable housing.

So these are older apartment communities.

Really by virtue of being older, the rents tend to be lower.

They're incredibly vulnerable to investors coming in, either tearing it down and building new or adding some granite countertops, and rent that was 750 is suddenly $1,100.

So Roof Above had an opportunity, thanks to the generosity of the community, to actually purchase a NOAH.

So we bought Hill Rock Estates in East Charlotte, which is 341 apartment units.

And we have folks from rents that are high 800s down to we're serving 75 folks coming out of chronic homelessness and are able to have rents as low as $200 a month.

- Huge disparity.

- Yeah.

We've been able to do something similar.

We were able to purchase Wendover Walk, which is right on Wendover Road.

So it's in a higher upper- - Highly, highly expensive neighborhood.

- That's exactly right.

And we were able to actually lower rents for people who live there, and then also, we welcomed in lower-income folks.

So we were able to transition the property to about 60% of it is affordable currently.

- Excellent.

Dr. Graham, I know you're specifically focused on the Concord area.

- Sure.

So talk to us about some of the areas where the affordable housing is and how it's getting impacted in that area as well.

- Well, just to say, one of the things that we're doing right now is that we've secured some property in Lincoln Street in the Logan community of Concord, traditionally an African American community.

We're gonna be developing 28 town homes, and about 80% of those are gonna be for ownership, all the 80% area median income and below.

That's actually done through the city of Concord because they put a 1-cent tax towards all affordable housing development, and it's really off the mill.

So it really equates about 2% when you look at it.

So I think that that's important, and I would add to this that we're really gonna have to think about regionalism in terms of housing.

Now I know we talk a lot about Charlotte, but the reality is over 30% of Charlotte's workforce is coming from these other communities.

Over 50% of Concord's is coming from other communities, and Concord's the fastest growing city in North Carolina for a couple of reasons.

One, yes, you have some out-of-state migration, but actually, it's also Mecklenburg residents who are looking for these less expensive housing for investment as well as schools.

And so when you think about that, this is really a regional issue that we're gonna have to address, particularly the towers that reside here.

They're gonna have to think a little bit more about what the region looks like at this point.

- And every move impacts all of us.

We often get in our own little boxes and we think, well, like you mentioned, NIMBY, Not in My Back Yard, but really, if we look at a more of a holistic approach, we can see some bigger opportunities to improve the process.

It's gonna be 2022 before we know it.

Anything new on the horizon that we can expect?

- Well, - Julie.

- DreamKey has five, actually, affordable apartment communities getting ready to close and start construction.

So we have really ramped up our production.

A lot of that is because the city of Charlotte has been a true partner, and they have increased the housing trust fund bond.

Now when you asked what can ordinary people do, they can vote for that bond because that is what we use to provide the subsidy to get deals done.

So we're seeing production increase overall.

I'd like to see the Build Back Better agenda.

Actually, it has a tax credit for producing lower income units, and that way, we would be able to serve people at 50% of area median income and under in great numbers.

And I'd love to see that happen, and I think with that, we could actually do some more affordable housing.

- Excellent.

Dr. Graham, talk to us a little bit.

Because this is such a desirable region to live in, as you talk about looking at it from a regional approach, and the prices of homes have gone through the roof, what do we do to get a handle on that?

We don't want necessarily a housing bubble to burst because then people are upside down in their houses.

How do we handle it?

- Right.

So we just received some American recovery dollars to try to deal with some of this from the county, Cabarrus as well as some dollars with the city.

And we're beginning to actually look also not at just what we can build now, but also the purchase of land through our community land trust that we can hold for future development.

One of the reasons that we're doing that is 'cause obviously, housing and land will increase in price as you go.

So if you start to lock down some of that land now, you may actually save some dollars in the future.

I think that one of the things that in the housing industry that we have done that hasn't always served us well is that we respond and we're not ahead of the game as much as we would like to be.

And it's interesting because as we're talking about even this new infrastructure bill that just passed, that's gonna put additional pressure because you're gonna talk about materials and other things that are gonna be spread, and we right now are dealing with that issue now.

So I think that one of the things we are gonna have to do is try to play ball for today but really think seriously about tomorrow, and that's one of the things that we're trying to do with the purchase of land.

- Thank you, Dr. Graham.

Time is disappearing quickly, so my final question's gonna go to you, Amy.

What do you want people to know about the misunderstanding of people and how they have sometimes categorized people in a homeless situation?

What do you want everyone to understand?

- Well, I want everyone to understand is that homelessness is not just about someone who is having mental issues or drug problems or alcoholism.

The face of homelessness is changing every day.

In my particular case, I became homeless when I fled from domestic violence.

I'm college educated.

I have a strong work background.

But finding work is not always possible when you're new to an area, when you've had to move multiple times just to flee your abuser.

But the face of homelessness is definitely changing, and you can't make those assumptions.

- Thank you so much.

I wanna thank all of our panelists for this powerful conversation.

We've just scratched the surface, but we hope you've learned a lot about the issue and how we can work together to solve this affordable housing crisis.

There's no magic wand.

I wish there were to make this issue go away.

It's going to take years of intentional public-private partnership and everyone doing something to improve the situation.

We'll continue to create a space for authentic conversation here at PBS Charlotte.

To our studio audience and everyone at home, thank you so much for joining us.

We always appreciate your time.

Good night, my friends.

(slow dramatic music) (audience applauds) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.