The Research and News Roundup is a monthly blog series that features a curated list of recent news and research related to housing instability, homelessness, and affordable housing. Together, these topics provide insights about the full housing continuum and provide community stakeholders with information about emergent research, promising practices, and innovative solutions related to housing and homelessness.

This blog examines recent research and emerging practices highlighting strategies to prevent system involvement, reduce homelessness after incarceration, and preserve affordable housing.

Research, practice, and lived experience all point to the same conclusion: people exit homelessness and stay housed when they can access safe, decent, affordable, permanent housing with the right level of support. Shelters, outreach, and supportive services are all essential, but we cannot end homelessness without also having an adequate supply of permanent housing resources.
This blog provides an overview of why permanent housing is critical to reducing homelessness and examines strategies Mecklenburg County and other communities can use to fund, scale, and sustain permanent housing when federal resources are insufficient to meet local need.

Today, with homelessness in Mecklenburg County rising and housing affordability threatening to push more families into impossible choices and greater instability, our community has access to extensive data and research because of a vision and partnership born over a decade ago. It’s easy to take for granted that it wasn’t too long ago that getting accurate, consistent information on homelessness and housing instability was challenging in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
This article reflects on the enduring partnership between the Charlotte Urban Institute and Mecklenburg County Community Support Services, which together, recently marked 10 years of advancing data-driven efforts to address housing instability and homelessness. As the formal project partnership comes to a close, this milestone offers an opportunity to look back on the impact of our shared work, the foundation it leaves for future progress, and the questions we must continue to ask ourselves to ensure data translates into action in people’s lives.

As of September 30, 2025, 138 Veterans were experiencing homelessness in Mecklenburg County. Of these, 37 are chronically homeless, meaning they live with a disabling condition and have experienced homelessness continuously for at least one year, or four or more times over the past three years. Ending Veteran homelessness requires ongoing coordination among multiple partners — including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Mecklenburg County, and a network of dedicated nonprofit organizations. Together, these agencies form a critical safety net that ensures Veterans are connected to the housing and services they’ve earned through their service.

This blog post provides an overview of Veteran homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, recent data trends from the One Number update, and examples of how community collaboration is driving measurable progress toward ending homelessness among Veterans.

This blog summarizes key findings from the study, explains the concept of residual income cost-burden, and explores what the findings suggest about housing affordability challenges in Mecklenburg County.