Housing Advocates ask City Council to hold slumlords accountable

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Housing advocates are calling on Charlotte City Council to hold slumlords accountable for what they say is an ongoing housing crisis.

People facing homelessness shared their stories in the public forum portion of the last business meeting of the year about what they say is a pattern they’ve noticed with slumlords.

Advocates say there are families across Charlotte living in deteriorating homes with serious code enforcement violations like leaky roofs and broken pipes. They say Lamplighter Inn and Tanglewood Apartments are just two examples of what advocates call mass displacements because landlords fail to fix hazards.

Housing advocates analyzed data from Charlotte Code Enforcement that showed as of November 18, 2024 there were 916 open housing violations over the last two years. They say a quarter of the violations have been open for more than six months. They also noted each housing code violation is associated with a parcel of land, and 12 parcels have 11 or more open housing code violation reports.

Action NC says one single property owner has more than $700,000 in unpaid fines. Negligent property owners ignore fines and violations which forces code enforcement to condemn the property pushing tenants out of their homes.

Carolyn Toney, says she lived in unsafe conditions for months at Tanglewood before she and her young grandchildren moved out in early November.

“I don’t ever want to see nobody live like I had to live,” Toney said. “They’re [Tanglewood Owners] not doing nothing. Put liens on these slum lords. Put liens on them immediately.”

Action NC teamed up with One Meck to draft policy recommendations to protect tenants. Housing advocates are asking City Council to give code enforcement more power to hold landlords accountable. They drafted policy recommendations to require mandatory hearings for negligent property owners, a Community Stabilization Fund for displaced people and Comprehensive Tenant Protections in the city code.

“When displacement occurs, it de-stabilizes families, disrupts children’s education and pushes people closer to homelessness,” Jessica Moreno from Action NC said. “This is unacceptable in a city as prosperous as Charlotte. We need to prevent this from happening again. Stronger code enforcement policies are key to protecting tenants.”

Advocates say they would like to see the city use some of the existing measures in the housing code that would stiffen penalties for slumlords.

Charlotte City Council did not discuss on vote on any housing policy changes in the meeting on December 9th.