Land Trust Buys 32 Homes In West Charlotte To Preserve Affordable Housing

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – People living in an historic West Charlotte neighborhood are celebrating an effort to preserve affordable housing.

COVID relief funs are being used to save more than 30 homes from possible redevelopment.

“I am just ecstatic about this day,” says West Charlotte resident Julia Knox.

Knox has lived in the historic Hoskins neighborhood for more than 50years.

“I raised my children here. And my grandkids,” she says.

Now, she hopes to spend the rest of her life there after a new effort to preserve existing neighborhood homes.

Tuesday night, neighbors came together to celebrate the purchase of 32 homes, spread out across the Hoskins neighborhood.

A landlord agreed to sell the homes to the West Side Community Land Trust, instead of to a developer.

Mecklenburg County Commissioners approved six million dollars in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to make it happen in partnership with Fifth Third Bank.

“For those who have been here for a very long time, who have built this community and have a lot pride of what they’ve built… it’s important for them to take advantage of the changing landscape of their communities and not be forced to leave,” says Jada Grandy-Mock, with Fifth Third Bank.

Community leaders say without the purchase, the sale of so many homes at one time could have dramatically impacted the neighborhood and led to a wave of gentrification.

“So many people are so excited. And now they’ll get an opportunity for home ownership. And to build legacies right here in the community that we love,” says Beverly Knox Davis.

For Knox, that also means keeping the character of the neighborhood she’s lived in for so long.

“Preserving what you have, you know. That’s your history. So you should preserve it,” Knox days.