CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dozens of people experiencing chronic homelessness in Mecklenburg County recently into a first-of-its-kind apartment building Wednesday, including several who were displaced by the removal of Charlotte's Tent City last year.
Roof Above opened State Employees' Credit Union The Rise on Clanton last week and began moving tenants in immediately. There are 422 people in Mecklenburg County experiencing chronic homelessness, according to Roof Above.
SECU The Rise on Clanton will provide permanent housing for 88 people. It is Charlotte's first adaptive reuse, permanent supportive housing solution. Adaptive reuse is the process of renovating buildings that have outlived their original purpose and converting them for different functions.
The organization said 10 of the first tenants were displaced from the homeless encampment known as "Tent City" before being placed in county-funded hotels.
SECU The Rise on Clanton was funded by a $2 million donation from the State Employees' Credit Union Foundation last October. The former hotel has been converted into apartments for those who are unable to find permanent housing on their own.
"The reality is that once folks fall into homelessness it's much harder to get out," Roof Above CEO Liz Clasen-Kelly said.
Charlotte's growth has been a hurdle for the group. Clasen-Kelly said there's a supply and demand issue for affordable housing, especially when older apartments get renovated into luxury properties or torn down altogether.
SECU The Rise on Clanton residents will be charged 30% of their income for rent. If someone has no income, Roof Above will work with them to find employment. If someone receives disability, they will pay one-third of that for rent, Clasen-Kelly said.
"It's really an investment in humanity," she said in October of 2021. "It's an investment in opportunity and it's an investment in dignity."
WCNC Charlotte is part of seven major media companies and other local institutions producing I Can’t Afford to Live Here, a collaborative reporting project focused on solutions to the affordable housing crisis in Charlotte. It is a project of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, which is supported by the Local Media Project, an initiative launched by the Solutions Journalism Network with support from the Knight Foundation to strengthen and reinvigorate local media ecosystems. See all of our reporting at charlottejournalism.org.