Charlotte’s Belk College Of Business Confronts Housing Affordability
Enough people moved to the Charlotte metro from 2022 to 2023 to create a city roughly the size of Huntersville or Kannapolis, with 49,000-plus newcomers relocating to the area.
This brisk pace of growth — combined with a shortage of available housing and high interest rates — means that the Charlotte area faces a daunting shortfall of housing that people with low and moderate incomes can afford. While interest rates have come down and the supply side has improved in recent months, the problem persists.
Researchers with the Belk College of Business, along with dedicated alumni, are confronting the enduring challenge of housing affordability and availability in a number of collaborative and innovative ways.
Among those leaders are Liz Ward ’14 M.S., founder of Give Impact LLC, an advisory services firm focused on affordable housing and upward mobility solutions through real estate; and James Scruggs ’19 M.S., CEO of Kingdom Development Partners and founder of Ascension Community Development Corporation, intent on creating and developing mixed income, sustainable communities.
Through their shared interest and respect, they started talking about opportunities to creatively nurture neighborhoods while also building social capital and sustainability. Among those efforts is a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to develop the Carya Pond community of 83 townhomes, with half to be sold at market rates and half to be sold to families in the Habitat for Humanity program. Kingdom Development Partners and Harmon Construction Services are the formal partners with Habitat, and Ward and others with Give Impact were instrumental in creating the partnership.