Homelessness: A Crisis Demanding Urgent Action

By: Tara Peele, President & CEO of Housing Collaborative

Homelessness is a disaster.

When there is a natural disaster, like Hurricane Helene, community members, without question, rally to support those affected. There is a sense of urgency and folks are compelled to do whatever needs to be done. It’s really inspiring when this happens because it reminds us that we are all neighbors and we should pitch in when tragic events occur.

We could stand to take a disaster mindset in responding to homelessness. Homelessness is a disaster for the individual or family experiencing it, and unfortunately, this type of disaster occurs all around us, daily; however, in Housing Collab’s opinion and from our hands-on experience, few treat it as such. Our homeless neighbors are often ignored or policed, and there’s not a sense of urgency to address the underlying causes of homelessness. Even in the aftermath of natural disasters, homeowners and leaseholders will receive assistance, but resources for those experiencing homelessness prior to the displacement event are limited.

Responding to homelessness as a disaster. 

How do we make sure there is literally “a home for all?” Not just during a mass displacement event like Hurricane Helene, but all the time? This is the question to be answered via the City and County-driven community A Home For All initiative.

There is a big misconception about the cause of homelessness which interferes with how people respond (or don’t) to helping others and that is the belief that homelessness is due to bad individual decisions. Homelessness is a complex issue involving economic, social, and personal factors. Rental costs rising faster than incomes, personal healthcare crises, and untreated mental health challenges are major contributors to homelessness, and loss of housing exacerbates many of them, creating more barriers to rehousing.

When a natural disaster occurs, it feels “blameless” and folks are quick to help. Many people don’t want to help our homeless neighbors because they feel that their situation is their own fault. Seeing people who are unsheltered might result in discomfort for some. Others may feel overwhelmed when confronted with the number of people who are less visibly homeless, like the thousands of adults and children who live in hotels, move from couch-to-couch, or secure one of the limited shelter beds. A lack of urgency can result when a problem feels so complex.

It’s important for us to understand that homelessness, housing instability and affordable housing are issues that affect all of us, not just those living without stable housing. Having a shortage of affordable housing and an underfunded shelter system greatly affects the broader community infrastructure by putting extra demands on healthcare, school, and emergency responses systems.

Production Pillar.

We’re proud to have been selected to work on the “Production Pillar” of A Home For All, where our focus is on increasing access to affordable housing units through recruiting housing providers who are willing to rent their properties to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. While this is work we have done for many years, we’re excited to receive this targeted funding to establish a menu of incentives that will bolster our efforts to add new housing provider partners and support existing ones.

Through the property provider recruitment and retention initiative, our goal is to recruit and retain new and existing property provider relationships to increase access to rental housing that is affordable to those most in need. We are centralizing outreach efforts to better understand what housing providers need in order to support our work to secure housing for our neighbors in need. We understand that housing providers are running a business, so we focus on streamlining the process of renting to program-connected households, to fill units and deliver payments quickly, and provide support if issues arise.

We need everyone (especially property providers) to help.

The biggest challenge we face in reducing and ending homelessness in Mecklenburg County is the lack of affordable housing. We can only move people out of homelessness if there is somewhere for them to go. The need for affordable housing is overwhelmingly greater than the availability of open units.

We are in need of private property providers as well as multifamily developers and managers to collaborate with us by letting us fill their vacant properties with people who need them, and then experience the long-term support we provide for our housing provider partners.

Our latest offering, thanks to A Home For All, is a new menu of incentives that will hopefully inspire the people with available housing units to partner with us.

A Home For All is not just a plan–it’s a commitment to a future where everyone in Charlotte-Mecklenburg has access to stable, affordable housing. By staying informed, getting involved, and supporting local initiatives, we can address the challenges of homelessness and housing instability head-on. It will take the collective effort of government, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals to make this vision a reality. Join us in building a stronger, more equitable community where everyone has a place to call home.

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