Entries by Mary Ann Priester

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Property in Charlotte Dedicates Units to Veterans Exiting Homelessness

The Charlotte homeless response team partnered with Community Solutions to purchase Park at Ferentino, a 216-unit apartment building. Half of the units will be dedicated to veterans exiting homelessness, while the other half will be leased as affordable homes. This resource will help the Charlotte-Mecklenburg homeless response team make progress toward solving veteran homelessness while preserving existing affordable housing.

This blog provides an overview of the project and the anticipated impact for Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

January 9, 2024 by
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2023 in Review: “Top Five” List for Learning More About Housing Instability and Homelessness

Each year, Mecklenburg County Community Support Services (CSS) releases an annual report series on housing instability and homelessness. The report series consists of two primary research products. The first, an integrated data report, is produced by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. These reports link cross-system data sources to explore  housing instability and/or homelessness through an intersectional lens. In May, CSS released an integrated data report describing the rate and characteristics of people experiencing homelessness before and after incarceration by combining data from the Homeless Management Information System and the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.  An upcoming integrated data report will use combined information sources to describe risk factors for homelessness among foster care involved youth.

The second major output in the series is the annual Charlotte-Mecklenburg State of Housing Instability & Homelessness Report. This report includes local, regional, and national data on the full housing continuum. It also features data from the Point-in-Time Count; housing inventory; rental gaps; and system performance metrics. It provides a single resource for all housing and homelessness-related data and information pertaining to Charlotte-Mecklenburg. The 2023 Report featured new data sources, and was released in early December.

In addition to the locally produced housing instability and homelessness outputs described above, several other housing-related reports have been released during the past year. A previous blog post providing a “top five” reading list for Summer 2020. This blog post will update that list and provide you with a 2023 “top five” reading list, including a brief overview of each report, why you should read it, and what each means for Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

December 21, 2023 by
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A Home For All: Production Pillar

In August, United Way of Greater Charlotte (United Way) released the A Home For All Implementation Plan. Building on the priorities identified in the Strategic Framework, the Implementation Plan outlines which priorities to advance first in order to address housing instability and homelessness across the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. This is the third post in a series of blogs examining the three pillars of the A Home For All Implementation Plan: People, Prevention, and Production. For more information on the People Pillar, click here, and for the Prevention Pillar, click here.
This blog provides an overview of the Production Pillar.

December 19, 2023 by
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2023 State of Housing Instability & Homelessness Report Released Today

Today, December 7, 2023, Mecklenburg County Community Support Services  released the 2023 State of Housing Instability & Homelessness (SoHIH) Report. The annual SoHIH report synthesizes local, regional, and national data on the full housing continuum. It provides a knowledge base that Charlotte-Mecklenburg uses to make informed policy, practice, and funding decisions to facilitate optimized resource allocation and systems of care.

This blog post outlines the key findings from the 2023 SoHIH and what it could mean for Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

December 7, 2023 by
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2024 Point-In-Time Count: Volunteers Needed To Help Ensure #Everybodycountsclt

The 2024 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Point-in-Time (PIT) Count will take place on Thursday, January 25, 2024. This annual event is when the community comes together to survey and count each person experiencing sheltered or unsheltered homelessness on one night in January. On January 25th, volunteers and outreach teams will canvass the community to locate and engage individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Last year, in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, 1,916 people were counted, including 171 families, 106 unaccompanied youth (18-24), and 288 people sleeping outside. Preparations and planning are underway for the 2024 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count and we need your help. Full community support and engagement is needed to not only make this year’s PIT a success but to also move forward the work to prevent and end homelessness in Mecklenburg County.

This blog post provides information on how individuals and agencies can get involved and support this year’s PIT Count.

November 29, 2023 by
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Research and News Roundup: November 2023

This blog is the first of a monthly blog series that will feature a curated list of recent news and research related to housing instability, homelessness, and affordable housing. Together, these topics provide insights on the full housing continuum and are intended to keep community stakeholders informed about emergent research, promising practices, and innovative solutions related to housing instability and homelessness.
This month’s Research and News Roundup features an innovative approach to using utility payments to predict first-time homelessness; opportunities and resources to increase affordable housing by converting commercial properties; and proposed expansion of the Healthy Opportunities Pilot, a first of its kind program that provides non-medical interventions that address housing instability and other social determinants of health (SDOH) to Medicaid participants.

November 22, 2023 by
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Addressing Veteran Homelessness: Services and Collaborative Efforts in Charlotte-Mecklenburg

As of November 1, 2023, there were 268 Veterans experiencing homelessness in Mecklenburg County. Forty-six of these Vets are chronically homeless, which means they have a disability and have been homeless one year or longer or four times in the past three years. Interagency collaboration between organizations like the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Mecklenburg County, and non-profit organizations is essential to preventing and ending Veteran homelessness.

This blog describes Veteran homelessness and highlights the services of some of the many organizations working to address Veteran homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

November 8, 2023 by
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HUD System Performance Measures: Employment and Income Growth

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act mandates that Continuums of Care (CoCs) evaluate their collective work in resolving homelessness. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has established seven System Performance Measures to serve this purpose. On an annual basis, Charlotte-Mecklenburg is required to report its performance on six of these measures to HUD. System Performance Measures play a pivotal role in securing CoC funding and act as valuable tools for local oversight and system enhancement. This blog is the fourth installment in a series exploring Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s performance on these measures and their implications for the local community.

In this blog post, we offer an overview and present data on System Performance Measure Four: Employment and Income Growth for Homeless Persons in CoC Program-funded Projects.

November 1, 2023 by
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Amplifying Voices: The Vital Role of Lived Experience Committees in Homelessness Solutions

The voices of people with lived expertise of homelessness are crucial to all planning and decision-making activities related to the Continuum of Care. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care (CoC) Lived Experience Committee (LEC) is a collaborative of individuals who work together to provide a platform for individuals who have experienced homelessness to share their insights, perspectives, and recommendations on issues related to homelessness and the services, policies, and strategies designed to address it.

This blog post will provide an introduction to Lived Experience Committees and highlight the work of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Continuum of Care Lived Experience Committee.

October 25, 2023 by