3,260 Neighbors in Need: County Releases Housing and Homelessness Report

Header images for CSS Housing Innovation & Stabilization Services

Mecklenburg County Community Support Services has released the 2022 State of Housing Instability & Homelessness (SoHIH) Report.

The annual report serves as the foundation that Charlotte-Mecklenburg can use to better understand gaps and inform policy and funding solutions. It combines local, regional, and national data into a digestible and informative format to illustrate the full housing continuum. The report is anchored in three main sections:

Homelessness (individuals in shelters and unsheltered)
Housing Instability (doubled up, housing cost-burden)
Stably Housed (permanent and affordable)

The report also features data from the 2022 Point-in-Time Count, housing inventory and rental gaps information, Housing Trust Fund, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's system performance metrics.

What We Know

  • The number of people experiencing homelessness has increased. As of October 2022, there were 3,260 people in Mecklenburg County actively experiencing homelessness, a 3% increase (from 3,171 people) from October 2021.

  • Low-cost rentals are disappearing. Low-cost housing for low-income households now accounts for 13% of the total housing stock, down from 45% in 2011.

  • More low- and moderate-income households are struggling to afford and keep their housing. Lag in incomes increasing at the same rate as housing costs is a contributing factor to the number of rental households in Mecklenburg County who are housing cost burdened increasing 51% since 2011.

  • Households remain homeless longer. The average length of time that people spent in emergency shelter before exiting to permanent housing increased by 17 days from FY2020 to FY2021. This measure has steadily increased by 63% in the last seven years.

Why it Matters

The 2022 State of Housing Instability & Homelessness Report provides a single, dedicated compilation of all the latest data on housing instability and homelessness pertaining to Charlotte-Mecklenburg. This resource can be used by stakeholders who are working to understand and solve housing instability and homelessness. It also sets a platform for measurement in the nature and level of need.

Most importantly, the State of Housing Instability & Homelessness Report keeps the community focused on the ongoing and continued need in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. It stresses how imperative it is to advocate for deeper investment to expand safe, decent, and affordable housing, for policy changes such as the Source of Income Protection set forth by both the Charlotte City Council and the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, and to hold providers and access points to resources accountable.

This is the first year in which Mecklenburg County Community Support Services/Housing Innovation and Stabilization Services (HISS) fully authored the report. UNC Charlotte's Urban Institute has provided consultation during this transition to maintain the integrity of this report. Going forward, the SOHIH will build on the success of previous reports produced by UNC Charlotte's Urban Institute and continue to provide data on the full housing continuum to the community.

The 2022 report and corresponding material can be found on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing & Homelessness Dashboard.