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.

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

Generated from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), the One Number encompasses individuals enrolled in Emergency Shelter (ES), Transitional Housing (TH), Street Outreach (SO), Permanent Housing (PH) (if no move-in date to housing is recorded yet) and Coordinated Entry (CE) programs in HMIS. It includes both those experiencing sheltered homelessness and a portion of those experiencing unsheltered homelessness. It also provides a comprehensive By-Name List of each person experiencing homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

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.

In June 2025, Mecklenburg County Community Support Services released two reports examining Transition-Age Foster Care Youth and Homelessness. The first report looks at older youth who experience foster care and the association with homelessness between ages 18 and 21. The second report in the series looks specifically at youth who are eligible for Extended Foster Care – which provides support services and financial support for housing for youth who age out of the foster care system. For this report homelessness is defined as accessing local homeless services such spending the night at an emergency shelter.

This blog outlines key findings from the reports and what these findings mean for Mecklenburg County.