Recommendation for City of Charlotte 2026-2027 Budget

Why We Need To Increase the Housing Trust Fund to $200M

 

  • Charlotte’s Housing Trust Fund (HTF) is essential to the City’s effort to ensure that families have housing they can afford
  • In 2024, the bond referendum increased HTF funding from $50M to $100M
  • This increase brought significantly more funding for affordable housing, and allowed opportunities for new types of investment
  • Instead of a single $50M bucket, the funds were allocated to 8 spending categories such as rental production, homeownership, rehab/anti-displacement, and supportive housing/shelter
  • As a result of this allocation, the amount of funding for new rental housing was actually reduced, from a potential maximum of $50M to just $35M
  • But new rental housing is the most important function of the Housing Trust Fund among the 8 programs
    • City staff has determined that our deficit of affordable housing for folks at 50% of AMI and below is 42,000 units
    • There were over 52,000 eviction cases filed against tenants in Mecklenburg County in 2025
    • Homelessness in Mecklenburg increased by 12% last year despite all of our efforts to improve affordable housing.
  • This inadequate funding for rental production meant that worthy proposals have not been approved
    • As an example, “Grier Reserves”, a $7M proposal for 150 affordable units by DreamKey. The County provided the land for this project, yet the City was not able to provide the HTF gap funding.
  • Since only new rental production can leverage the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the failure to fund these projects means that Charlotte is missing out on federal funding. Note that in 2025, Charlotte was awarded only about 1/4 as much housing tax credits as Wake County!
  • Additionally, the HTF match for federal tax credits is the only practical means of creating new rental housing that serves residents at 30% of AMI, the families with the greatest need for affordable housing. Missing out on this funding meant a lost opportunity to serve them.
  • And there is a significant new need for funding. With the new sales tax to fund the light-rail expansion, it is essential that the city acquire land for affordable housing along the projected new transit lines.  We must avoid the repeat of the missed opportunities along the Blue Line where only one small affordable development occurred while massive amounts of higher end developments displaced working class folks.
  • We support the use of HTF funding for multiple housing programs such as the creative rehabilitation and operation of NOAH properties, repurposed hotels for supportive housing shelters, and home ownership that will stabilize neighborhoods and families.
  • To accommodate all of these worthwhile methods the HTF bond referendum must be increased to $200M to fund all meritorious proposals and mitigate the increased costs of land and construction.