Will It Take Your Money To Solve Affordable Housing Crisis

CHARLOTTE, NC– Charlotte has an affordable housing crisis, and some city council members agree, it will take a lot more money and possibly a tax hike to solve it.

Council approved a new affordable housing project Monday night.

“Once we realized there was something we could do, we wanted to implement something,” said Andrew Basil with HIgh Family Partnership.

That’s the latest company to get council’s approval.

It plans to build apartments on West Mallard Creek Church Rd.

Out of 260 units, 13 will be affordable with rent around $700 per month.

That caters to people making around $42,000 a year, like police officers teachers, firefighters, construction workers.

The city says we need at least 24,000 more with rent ranging from $300 to $1,000 a month.

“I’m open to anything that can help us,” said Council Member Larken Egleston.

WCCB Charlotte asked each council member if they’d support a tax hike.

Ed Driggs and Tariq Bokhari say no.

“We need to find our priorities inside the budget and make some tough decisions on what those priorities are,” said Bokhari.

Justin Harlow and James Mitchell say yes. “When I think about how we make our city great, I think of those three priorities: public safety, sidewalk and infrastructure and affordable housing. So, I can support anything we need to do to address those three,” said Mitchell.

The rest are unsure or did not respond.

“It’s going to have to be a multi-prong approach,” said Egleston.

The latest company is not using incentives.

“This is something the High family got behind 100 percent and is funding on their own because they believe in workforce housing,” said Basil.

Mayor Vi Lyles wants to put a $50 million bond referendum on the Nov. ballot.

The money would go to the housing trust fund for affordable housing.

She also wants the private sector to kick in 100 million dollars to help pay for affordable housing.