A local nonprofit recently opened a transitional, affordable housing complex.
Heal Charlotte, a nonprofit focused on neighborhood revitalization, youth outreach, and improving police and community relations, received $2.5 million from the City of Charlotte in September 2023 to support its mission to curb homelessness in Charlotte.
The nonprofit used the funding to transform the former Baymont by Wyndham Hotel off Sugar Creek Road into a transitional and low-income housing option for families in need.
A transformation
The housing program, called Community Campus, is located at 5415 Equipment Drive and is expected to serve 100 families this year, Greg H. Jackson, the founder and executive director of Heal Charlotte, said.
Jackson said his organization has been working on acquiring the hotel since 2019, when the nonprofit first began its capital campaign.
The organization has had access to 30 rooms at the hotel since 2019 to house families and is working toward acquiring the entire property.
Over the last four years, Jackson said that 65% of families in the program’s transitional housing have found permanent housing.
“We have a logic model that works,” he said about the supportive services available to those in the housing program. In addition to housing, the nonprofit provides wraparound services, like case management and homeownership education.
Community Campus will offer 90 to 120 days of free lodging for families without housing.
Families with children will be offered a double bed in their rooms or double rooms located next to each other.
The program will also offer 60 rooms on the third floor for families currently living in a hotel elsewhere. Families will be able to rent the rooms for $750 a month.
Jackson said the average cost for a family to live in a hotel is around $2,200.
“They’re being overcharged, but they’re still living in the middle of poverty,” he said.
Jackson said Heal Charlotte is in a lease-to-own deal with the hotel owners and plans to raise $8 million over the next two years to buy the property outright.
Some families were moved in last week, and more are underway, he told QCity Metro.
Jackson said the opening of the housing community is a start to a bigger revival of the Sugar Creek neighborhood.
A waitlist is available for housing at Heal Charlotte’s Community Campus.
A ‘holistic’ perspective
Jackson said the campus will take a “holistic” approach to address the “root causes” of poverty.
Those in the housing program will also receive services like employment support, childcare and legal assistance with previous evictions.
“Any way that we can help,” Jackson said. “We want to make sure that we’re addressing everyone’s needs.”
In addition, the housing community partnered with Carolina Farm Trust Market and the American Heart Association to offer a small produce market stocked with locally sourced meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables.
Jackson said that the market was placed in the hotel to make food more accessible and eliminate transportation concerns.
“We know that in this community, transportation is a problem,” Jackson said. “Not everybody’s mobile; it’s one of the biggest problems outside of childcare.”
The market will also accept EBT and SNAP.
People in the program can also get support applying for SNAP and EBT benefits if they don’t already have them.
A safe place to stay
Johnny Roberts, a resident who has been in Heal Charlotte’s housing program since February, said the community offers stable, humane and secure housing at an affordable rate.
Roberts was unexpectedly evicted earlier this year and was searching for housing when he got connected to Heal Charlotte.
He told QCity Metro that another organization offered him a tent to live in instead of an actual dwelling.
He said Heal Charlotte’s housing community gave him a better housing option.
“It’s safer,” Roberts told QCity Metro. “I would not be as safe in a tent.”
While Roberts stays at Community Campus, he has received help applying for affordable housing and is waiting to hear back from a long-term apartment.
