Housing

The Charlotte neighborhoods of Belmont and Villa Heights are experiencing an influx of white, professional residents in search of affordable housing close to uptown. Piedmont Courts, a housing project that dates to the 1940s, is gone, and crime is declining. Click here to read the article about the neighborhoods’ revival. Photographs by Nancy Pierce.

In the McEniry building at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, students moved out the chairs on a recent afternoon to clear the room for guests and presentations. Pizza boxes, soft drinks and ice arrived for a reception for students in Janni Sorensen’s social inequality and planning class. It was time for a celebration. […]

As Charlotte’s real estate market continues to recover from one of the worst economic downturns in modern times, it might be easy to assume that housing affordability is no longer an issue of great concern. But in south Charlotte and other highly desirable parts of Mecklenburg County, home prices continue to remain out of reach […]

Is it prescient and forward-thinking for the city to encourage subsidized housing at rapid transit stations in coming decades? Or would that be the nail in the coffin, killing any near-term chance to halt a pattern of sinking property values near some of those stations, especially in troubled parts of east and northeast Charlotte? Two […]

A voluntary inclusionary housing program, such as the one the City of Charlotte is considering, aims to stimulate development of geographically dispersed mixed-income housing by encouraging developers to include a small percentage of housing for low-income households amid market-rate housing in new developments. Some cities, such as Davidson and Chapel Hill, make this type of […]

What are the greatest needs facing our community? United Way of Central Carolinas posed this question to Mecklenburg County residents via the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute’s Annual Survey last spring. The survey found the greatest perceived community health need is preventive care; the greatest perceived need for children and youth is dropout prevention; the greatest […]

In June 2010, United Way of Central Carolinas commissioned the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute to conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment for its five-county service area. The primary purpose of the study was to pinpoint the community’s greatest needs and identify gaps in the current array of human services. This study is one of several […]

Since the completion of the report in May, UWCC and the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute have held several meetings to inform the greater community about the findings and recommendations from the study. Presentations were made to top CEOs in Mecklenburg County, the United Way Board of Directors, and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Cabinet. Additional presentations […]

In June 2010, United Way of Central Carolinas commissioned the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute to conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment for its five-county service area. The primary purpose of the study was to pinpoint the community’s greatest needs and identify gaps in the current array of human services. This study is one of several […]

“Frank Lloyd Wright described vernacular architecture as ‘folk building growing in response to actual needs, fitted into environment…’  Early settlers to the Piedmont – English, Scots-Irish, and German – arrived with traditional European building styles in mind, but they quickly adapted them to our local conditions.  As such, the old farmhouses in the Uwharries became […]