Last month, Mecklenburg County Community Support Services released two new data pages that provide insights into the local implementation of Coordinated Entry. Coordinated Entry (CE) is the front door to the local homeless response system. It is the primary place where households experiencing a housing crisis seek assistance. CE data helps us understand who is seeking assistance, the types of support and interventions they need, and how those needs change over time.

This blog provides a snapshot of the households who sought assistance via Coordinated Entry during the month of July, their characteristics and needs, and opportunities to strengthen the system to better support the emergent needs of those experiencing housing instability and homelessness in Mecklenburg County.

During the 2024-2025 school year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) identified a total of 5,680 students experiencing homeless, an 18% increase from the 4,815 students identified during the 2023–2024 school year.

This increase isn’t just a statistic; it reflects the rising housing instability impacting families with minor children across our community.

This week’s blog takes a closer look at the scope of student homelessness, it’s impacts, and the supports available through the McKinney-Vento Act.

In North Carolina, state law permits landlords to refuse to rent to someone based on how they plan to pay their rent. This means a landlord can reject a tenant if they plan to pay their rent with a Housing Choice Voucher, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or other source of lawful income. This is known as Source of Income Discrimination (SOID).  North Carolina municipalities can encourage landlords to accept all forms of income through financial and other incentives but they are prohibited from requiring the landlord to accept a specific type of income.

This blog post explains what source of income discrimination (SOID) is and describes municipal policy solutions based on initiatives taken by North Carolina cities and counties.

Since its inception in 2019 , the “One Number” has served as the primary benchmark for the number of people experiencing homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

The One Number is the best snapshot available for the number of people actively experiencing homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. It provides the most accurate minimum number of people experiencing homeless and provides insights into the minimum number of housing units and subsidies needed today to address their homelessness. These data also provide timely insights into the number of people flowing into and out of the homeless services system.

The Housing Data Snapshot, the hub for the latest data related to housing and homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, not only provides an overall count and demographics of homelessness by household type and subpopulation, it also highlights inflow to (Newly identified, Returns from Permanent Housing, Returns for Inactivity) and outflow from (Exit to Permanent Housing, Exit to Inactivity), homelessness.

This week’s blog post provides the most recent One Number update; a synopsis of recent dashboard updates; the latest One Number trends and analysis; and what this means for Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

Particularly in rapidly growing municipalities like Charlotte-Mecklenburg, zoning laws have become a critical tool and sometimes a barrier in the effort to address housing affordability.

This blog post synthesizes research about zoning laws in North Carolina and examines what zoning is and how it can affect housing affordability.