Affordable Housing

Row of townhomes

 

Get Help 

The City of Charlotte partners with several area nonprofits to help residents with affordable housing.  

Emergency Assistance 
  • Coordinated Entry
  • Housing Collaborative 
  • Crisis Assistance Ministry 
  • Dispute Settlement Program and Landlord-Tenant Mediation  
Assistance for renters & homeowners  
  • Safe Home Rehabilitation programs
  • LeadSafe Charlotte   
  • Emergency Repair   
Assistance for new homebuyers 
  • Housing counseling/education 
  • House Charlotte financial assistance   

 

 

What is affordable housing? 

Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in America: up to 120 people move here each day. The cost of renting or buying a home has skyrocketed, and many can't keep up. Housing is considered affordable if a family spends no more than 30% of their income to live there.  

See area median income limits for Charlotte. 

Graphic stating that Housing is considered affordable if a family spends no more than 30% of income on housing.

Housing cost increases have outpaced growth in wages, so many people who are working struggle to find an affordable place to live. 

See the affordable housing gap dashboard to explore the latest numbers on the need for affordable rental housing by income level.

What is the city doing about affordable housing? 

Guided by the Housing Charlotte Framework and in partnership with nonprofits, housing developers and other community partners, the City of Charlotte has developed a robust toolbox of policies and programs focused on affordable housing issues ranging from homelessness to homeownership. 

Housing Continuum Graphic showing how homeless support, rent and relocation, housing rehabilitation, preservation and new construction, and homeownership are all connected.

Want to dive deeper? Check out our Housing Dashboard to see the latest data and impacts. 

Housing Trust Fund 

As the city’s primary tool for creating and preserving affordable housing, the  Housing Trust Fund provides gap financing to developers to cover the cost of building affordable developments. This gap financing helps build, restore, and repair affordable housing to ensure that Charlotteans have safe, quality, affordable places to live. Since 2018, voters have approved $150 million in affordable housing general obligation bonds to increase affordable housing production. 

2022 marked the 20th anniversary of the first Housing Trust Fund investment. In the last two decades, the HTF has contributed $231.2M to support 11,000+ affordable housing units and 888 shelter beds for those experiencing homelessness. 

Learn more in the Housing Trust Fund 20th Anniversary report(PDF, 10MB).

Looking for affordable housing? Check out Housing Trust Fund-supported developments that have units available.

Centra Square & faith-based partnerships  

 

 

Video Transcript

Jason Puckett  00:00

This is the Centra Square Apartments development in the Belmont neighborhood of Charlotte. And at first glance, it looks like a typical housing complex. They've got apartments mixed with townhomes. And amenities, like large rec rooms, outdoor entertainment spaces, even elevators


Lee Cochran  00:14

The fit, the finishes, all of that are designed to be essentially the same as what they do and in the market rate world.


Jason Puckett  00:20

But dig a bit deeper, and there are a few things that make this complex special.


Lee Cochran  00:25

Units rent for anywhere from about $550 to $950 a month. In addition to that, over 10% of the units here have folks living in them that have rental assistance that actually helped them even additionally pay for those units.


Jason Puckett  00:39

A one bedroom at Centra Square runs $575 to $675. For comparison, nearby apartments cost about $1,200 to $1,600 a month. Townhomes either don't exist or cost between $1,800 to $2,600 a month, or as Lee Cochran with the developer Laurel Street put it:


Lee Cochran  00:56

Rents for units like this, in other parts of Charlotte, or even in this neighborhood, would rent for at least double that, if not triple that in some cases.


Jason Puckett  01:05

So what makes Centra Square so much more affordable than surrounding developments? Well, it's partly due to who owns the land.


Rev. Dr. Robert C Scott  01:13

I'm just glad that we can do a little something to help the City of Charlotte as far as our housing shortage is concerned.


Jason Puckett  01:19

Senior Pastor Robert C. Scott and church leaders at St. Paul Baptist noticed a steep price hike on homes in the neighborhood.


Rev. Dr. Robert C Scott  01:26

It is crazy, that the neighborhood in which my church is located, probably 10 to 15 years ago, a two or three bedroom small house that usually went for about $90,000 to maybe $110,000 is now going for anywhere between $290,000 to $350,000.


Jason Puckett  01:46

The church decided they needed to help.


Rev. Dr. Robert C Scott  01:49

The beginning of the process started with my predecessor, the Reverend Dr. Greg Moss. And as our neighborhood was beginning to go through gentrification, he decided that St. Paul is really an anchor in this community. And so he wanted to do something that will help us to be able to administer in this community in a more tangible way.


Jason Puckett  02:10

They broke ground in 2016, working with developer Laurel Street to turn the church's parking lots of extra land into 112 affordable housing units in the heart of the Belmont neighborhood. When


Rev. Dr. Robert C Scott  02:21

When I got into town back in October 2016. Charlotte had a housing deficit of close to 30,000 units, which is just astounding. So our 112 units, it's just really a drop in the bucket. But I think that our capacity to be able to give up our land, which was a sacrifice, to provide housing for at least 112 families is so worth it.


Jason Puckett  02:52

The church, St Paul, is contributing their land. The developer, Laurel Street worked with them to make the property a reality. And the last step is the City of Charlotte's Housing Trust Fund, or HTF. Established in 2001, the trust fund uses voter approved housing bonds to support affordable housing and shelter options throughout the city. In the last 20 years, HTF has provided more than $230 million to fund local development, organizations and more. And that has resulted in the creation and preservation of nearly 11,000 affordable housing units in the city. Centra Square is the perfect example of the HTF working in action with multiple local partners.


Lee Cochran  03:31

In this case, the major partners, Laurel Street, we're the developer, St. Paul Baptist church brought the land to the table in a great neighborhood. And then we also had the City of Charlotte's Housing Trust Fund, that we could not have built this without the investment from the Housing Trust Fund.


Rev. Dr. Robert C Scott  03:46

The city of course, providing tax credits and funds to make that a work in reality, we could not have done this without them. Of course, we know that Bank of America, the developers putting up some funds, we put up the land, but we couldn't have done it without the city. It was just a wonderful collaboration. And I would say that it was really providential and how well that came together.


Jason Puckett  04:10

So Centra Square here is an example of how the city and the Housing Trust Fund have worked to bring more affordable housing options to the area. Faith based partnerships like this are just one of the few ways we will be discussing in the coming months. Now if you want more information on Centra Square check out their website at this link, where you can find out more about the Housing Trust Fund at Charlottenc.gov.



 

Housing Rehabilitation  

Housing Services provides several repair programs for low-income city residents to ensure their homes can continue to be safe and affordable places to live.  

  • Safe Home Rehabilitation programs, including Safe Home, TLC by CLT, and the Housing Preservation Program, provide moderate housing rehabilitation to remove code violations and improve handicap accessibility, energy efficiency and environmental safety, as well as provide other benefits.
  • LeadSafe Charlotte provides testing and remediation of lead-based paint in homes built prior to 1978.
  • Emergency Repair provides urgent repairs for homeowners experiencing a housing condition that affects life, health, or safety, and that could lead to the household being displaced from the home unit. The city also partners with nonprofit organizations offering home repair programs to the Charlotte community.

 

Homebuyer Assistance 

As Charlotte’s booming real estate market continues to thrive, providing access to homeownership continues to be an important and growing part of the city’s affordable housing strategy. 

Group of city workers, business leaders, and neighborhood leaders posing for photo at The Meadows at Plato Price groundbreaking.

Learn more about The Meadows at Plato Price, a community development project consisting entirely of affordable homes, and other homeownership initiatives supported by the City of Charlotte. 

The city offers several housing education programs for potential homebuyers, including financial literacy, pre-homeownership counseling, and foreclosure prevention. Topics covered in these classes include budgeting, credit repair, mortgage loan approval, assisting in locating a home and assisting in negotiating mortgage loan terms and the purchase price, and mortgage loan closing process. 

The House Charlotte homeownership assistance program offers deferred and forgivable loan options for qualified potential homebuyers. Learn more about what resources 

 

 

Video Transcript

0:00

hello and welcome to my new household home.

0:03

[Music]

Meet Cathy Bailey

0:11

hello everybody my name is Kathy Bailey

0:13

and I'm an employee here with housing

0:15

and neighborhood services within the

0:17

city of Charlotte and I've been with the

0:19

apartment now for 28 years I've just

0:22

become a homeowner

0:24

[Music]

Why Cathy Bought a New Home

0:33

the reason I decided to buy a new home

0:35

is because a home is investment you pay

0:38

yourself and not the landlord in today's

0:40

markets homes are cheaper than paying

0:43

rent for instance the apartment that I Cathy’s Housing Payments, Before and After

0:45

just left was a one bedroom 800 square

0:48

feet my rent starting October 1st was

0:50

going up to thirteen hundred dollars my

0:53

new house payment is two bedrooms 1368

0:55

square feet with a two-car garage and my

0:58

payments are 13.62 and get this will

1:02

decrease after four years

1:04

[Music]

1:09

foreign

1:10

[Music]

Cathy describes the House Charlotte homebuying process.

1:30

to start the home buying process I had

1:33

to present my financial information to

1:35

Ron Mason to make sure that I was within

1:37

and not over the 80 percent medium

1:39

income range I was then given a list of

1:41

preferred House Charlotte lenders I

1:44

apply it for the mortgage and got

1:45

pre-approved I then had to take an

1:48

eight-hour homebuyer education course

1:49

which included a one-on-one budget

1:52

session which was very helpful Cathy recommends the House Charlotte program.

1:59

now that I've completed the home buying

2:02

process my thoughts on the house

2:04

Charlotte program oh my God is a

2:07

fantastic program that helps individuals

2:09

and families such as myself become

2:10

homeowner the house Charlotte program

2:12

provided me the down payment that I

2:15

needed to successfully achieve my goal

2:17

of becoming a homeowner the home buyer

2:20

program helped me to understand how the

2:22

loan process works what's involved doing

2:24

the closing and tips on paying and

2:27

maintaining my mortgage

2:30

foreign Ron Mason, House Charlotte Program Manager, describes the House Charlotte program.

2:41

hello my name is Ronald Mason I'm a

2:44

program manager with housing enabled

2:46

Services I oversee the house Charlotte

2:48

home buying assistance program offered

2:50

by the city of Charlotte the house

2:52

Charlotte program provides up to thirty

2:54

thousand dollars in assistance and can

2:56

be used to pay for interest rate buy

2:57

down closing costs as well as down

3:00

payment

3:01

since 2019 until today the program has

3:04

assisted over 939 households throughout

3:07

the city we hope you will be able to use

3:10

our down payment assistance to help with

3:11

your home buying needs to see if you're How to See if You’re Eligible for the House Charlotte Down Payment Assistance Program

3:14

eligible for the house Charlotte down

3:15

payment assistance program call Our

3:17

House Charlotte team at 704

3:20

705-3999 or you can reach me Ron Mason

3:23

at

3:25

704-336-2754 or check us out online

3:27

howcharlotteprogram.com

3:30

thank you

 

Emergency Assistance 

Our community's finest hours have always been when we come together to help one another. In our region, Mecklenburg County is the lead agency for providing resources and services for our homeless population. However, there are also many organizations and agencies including the City of Charlotte that work tirelessly to help our homeless neighbors. 

Need immediate help? Call Coordinated Entry at 704-284-9665 to connect to all available resources in the area.

Since 2018, the City has provided more than $40 million to support efforts to end and prevent homelessness, including more than $35 million since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the City of Charlotte has allocated more than $60 million for housing and homeless support.

In April 2021, local leaders announced a place to create the 2025 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing and Homelessness Strategy, the first comprehensive effort to address housing instability and homelessness in our community involving the public, private and non-profit sectors.