As Rock Hill breathes new life into its old mills, just up I77, a very different story is unfolding.

In Charlotte, the same wave of growth that's transforming neighborhoods is now threatening to push out the very nonprofits that helped those communities rise.

Carolina Impact's Chris Clark has that story.

(transition whooshing) - [Chris] It's 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon just off North Tryon, two hours before Hearts United for Good even opens its doors, but already the line is forming.

Cars inch forward, trunks open, families wait.

- If you are a human being and you are hungry, we're going to feed you.

If you're an animal and you're hungry, we're gonna feed you.

- Hi, how are you?

- [Chris] As cars idle outside, inside the warehouse, it's a flurry of motion.

(metal clangs) Volunteers are busy sorting donations from pretzels, chips, tortillas to cereal and packing them into simple brown paper bags that are easy to carry and quick to hand out.

- They are a blessing to me.

When I'm cold, they make sure I'm warm, when I'm hungry, they make sure I'm fed.

- Yogurt.

- [Chris] For hundreds of people, like Mark, Hearts United for Good has become a lifeline built on consistency, compassion, and volume.

- Weekly we're putting out up to three tons of food.

- One regular bag and that one stack bag.

- And that is consistent.

It is every single week we're doing 10 to 12 pounds per bag.

- [Chris] And it's not just shelf staples.

- We're including produce protein.

There's meat, there's fresh fruits, there's vegetables when we can, when available.

- [Chris] They've also become one of the few pantries in Charlotte meeting other essential needs.

The things most people don't think about until they run out.

- We're one of the only pantries too that offers free diapers, free adult incontinence items, hygiene items.

- [Chris] Every item that leaves this warehouse carries more than food or supplies.

It carries connection.

Some of the volunteers here once stood in the same line now giving back to the next person who needs it.

- It's very satisfying, for two reasons 'cause I feel the same way when I get the box.

So I realize how they feel when they receive it, and it makes me feel good to be able to do that to someone else.

- [Chris] 12 minutes and six and a half miles down South Tryon another nonprofit is serving the same mission, not with food, but with tools.

(driller whirs) The Charlotte Tool Bank isn't your typical warehouse.

These shelves are stacked high with drills, rakes, tents, and tables all loaned out to nonprofits and neighborhood groups across the city.

- We provide tools and special event equipment.

We're located in a very philanthropic city that loves a good nonprofit fundraiser or a 5K that benefits an organization.

And those special event items come with a high cost.

And so having access to those allows our organizations to have larger scale events, but also to raise more money from their event because they're lowering their rental costs.

- [Chris] But while the tool bank helps other non-profits save money, they're now struggling to save themselves.

They moved into this warehouse because it was affordable.

Today, that same affordability has disappeared.

- We have a situation where there's so much demand for commercial real estate in Mecklenburg County that prices out the nonprofits.

- Our amazing South End location is prime for development and we are also out of space.

So the two things are coming hand in hand for us and require us to relocate.

- [Chris] And across town Hearts United for Good is staring at the same future.

Right across the street from their North Tryon pantry, construction crews are hard at work.

What started as an affordable no frill space is quickly becoming another corner too costly to stay.

- The landlords were amazing to work with us on our budget since we have none.

So it was affordable.

We didn't pay utilities.

We didn't have to worry about anything like that.

So our budgets and our expenses were next to nothing and that's what allowed us to grow.

- It might look like an empty lot now, but it won't be that way for very long.

Soon it could be shops, it could be restaurants, but more than likely what it's gonna be is a multi-family project.

You see, those are the type of things that could pay the most money for land like this.

For years, this stretch of Charlotte has been quietly transforming the empty lots filling in, the skyline inching north, but the real engine behind that change isn't always what you see going up.

Sometimes it's about what is running right beside it.

- The light rail running up North Davidson Street has been a blessing and a curse.

The blessing is it's caused property owners to be able to cash out of their property at a very good number.

It's taken away from the commercial real estate market.

- [Chris] After years of steady growth, the Tool Bank's next move won't be easy.

They need space close enough to serve their partners and affordable enough to keep saving them money.

- We have over 14,000 items.

We serve over 1300 organizations and so the sheer scale of our operation, we need to go somewhere and we need to stay there and plant roots there.

- [Chris] Luckily for Hearts United for Good, they found a new space just a few miles away at the corner of Hawthorne and Central.

It's big enough to keep the mission alive, but moving is gonna mean leaving some of the people they serve behind.

- It's gonna be a struggle for anyone.

People that aren't mobile, I don't know what they would do.

- [Chris] For Hearts United for Good, this move isn't the end of the story.

Just the next chapter and one they've lived before.

Each time they find a new home, the mission continues, but deep down they know this isn't permanent.

- This is just a temporary two year fix for our solution.

- [Chris] In a city growing skyward, these nonprofits keep their focus at ground level, meeting people where they are for as long as they can.

For Hearts United for Good and the Charlotte Tool Bank, every move means starting over.

It's just proof that even in a changing city, compassion still finds room to work.

- Got bunch of Bettys for ya.

- [Chris] For Caroline Impact, I'm Chris Clark.