Charlotte City Council will consider taking a step to make it easier for people with rental subsidies like vouchers to use them.
A housing voucher is not a guarantee someone will find a place to rent. According to Inlivian, formerly the Charlotte Housing Authority, one out of five Housing Choice Vouchers expire before the holder can use them, often because they can’t find a place to rent.
With that in mind, City Council created an advisory committee to study how to make it harder for property owners to pass over applicants using vouchers. One of its recommendations is to include protections in all city and county-supported housing developments preventing landlords from discriminating against renters using vouchers.
That’s already the case for any developments receiving Housing Trust Fund money. Charlotte officials say that’s 80-90% of housing the citysupports. This recommendation would expand that to projects that include any support from the city, including community development block grants and tax increment grants. It would include units designated affordable and market rate.
The Great Neighborhoods committee decided Monday to move that recommendation to the full City Council. It could take that up in April or May.
This story is part of I Can’t Afford to Live Here, a collaborative reporting project focused on solutions to the affordable housing crisis in Charlotte.