Poverty

How are Housing Choice Vouchers distributed across Southeastern Cities?

This research was used by USA Today for an investigative series called ‘Segregated by Section 8.’ The series is available online here (subscriber-only). Housing Choice Vouchers are a subsidy that helps extremely low income individuals and families (defined by HUD as earning less than 30% of area median income) afford housing in the private market. […]

One month into the coronavirus crisis, food and housing insecurity rise

Since the coronavirus lockdowns began, Mecklenburg’s resource helpline has seen housing assistance requests jump 219% and food assistance jump 747%. These numbers are an indication of the dramatic impacts we’re seeing unfold on Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s economy. It has been more than one month since Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency to combat the spread […]

The Urban Institute Research Faculty Fellows seek to better our region

A new program designed to identify solutions for some of the pressing needs and issues facing the greater Charlotte region is getting underway this fall at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. For the first time, the Institute has named a cohort of Faculty Fellows to conduct research projects and work alongside local stakeholders to understand […]

Can we revive real meaning of ‘affordable housing’?

In recent years there has been a trend (unfortunate, in my view) among a number of housing professionals and political officials to use the term “affordable housing” only in the context of lower-cost, assisted or subsidized housing. In fact, these three terms that describe housing have grown somewhat out of favor and have been conveniently, […]

Can we revive real meaning of ‘affordable housing’?

In recent years there has been a trend (unfortunate, in my view) among a number of housing professionals and political officials to use the term “affordable housing” only in the context of lower-cost, assisted or subsidized housing. In fact, these three terms that describe housing have grown somewhat out of favor and have been conveniently, […]

Housing proves a hot topic in Charlotte

With community discussion and research ongoing around the problem of a lack of economic mobility in Charlotte, a Sept. 27 public lecture by Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer-winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, drew such demand that the free public tickets were snapped up in less than 24 hours. Desmond will speak […]

Comparing demographics with free or reduced lunch, 2012-2013

Categories: Maps Tags: Education, Poverty

This week’s map looks at the intersection of two previous topics: student demographics and free and reduced lunch applicants. Staff

2013-14 district and school demographics

Categories: Maps Tags: Education, Poverty

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is providing weekly maps and data dashboards to highlight relevant statewide education statistics for EducationNC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news source aiming to create a bipartisan, statewide conversation about public schools. Learn more about this new initiative here. This week’s EdMap examines the demographics of students during the 2013-14 school year. […]

Free versus reduced lunch applications

Categories: Maps Tags: Education, Poverty

The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute is providing weekly maps and data dashboards to highlight relevant statewide education statistics for EducationNC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news source aiming to create a bipartisan, statewide conversation about public schools. Learn more about this new initiative here. This week’s EdMap allows you to explore differences in free and reduced lunch […]

Report tallies gains from United Way’s Collective Impact initiative

It’s a simple concept: Focus on fewer goals and bigger results. That’s the idea behind the Collective Impact approach United Way of Central Carolinas has adopted. For United Way, that goal for the next 10 years is to increase the graduation rate among the more than 13,000 at-risk children who receive services from 16 United […]