Housing Collaborative offers financial incentives and assistance to landlords, with the goal of helping people who are trying to start over.
Finding a place to live is especially difficult for people who are experiencing homelessness. Housing Collaborative, previously known as Socialserve, is seeking solutions to the affordable housing crisis by offering financial incentives to rental property owners, to get more people into homes.
As rent increases at a fast rate, it puts houses and apartments out of reach for many people. Now, more people don’t have a place to sleep.
“Housing is foundational to a person’s success,” President and CEO of Housing Collaborative Tara Peele said.
Peele says no factor matters more than access to housing — without enough of it, not everyone has a place to live.
“A lot of times the affordable housing crisis can feel overwhelming and people feel like they can’t do anything about it,” Peele said. “But what I do need people to know is if they do have a property they can do something about it, they can help at least one household.”
Housing Collaborative offers financial incentives and assistance to landlords, with the goal of helping people who are trying to start over.
“We actively are the ones paying the rental subsidies, we get to manage that process, so we get to pay quickly,” Peele said.
It can also include, application fees, security deposits, or administrative fees.
According to Housing Collaborative, the nonprofit helped 10,600 households retain housing and helped 320 households access housing in 2021. They currently have over 200 housing partners — but they need more.
“200 properties is a lot of properties to work with, but it’s just a drop in the bucket,” Peele said. “As far as we’re concerned, we need to work with more like 2,000 or 5,000 housing providers in order to meet the housing need in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.”
Property providers interested in partnering with Housing Collaborative can email housingpartner@housingcollab.org.
The Charlotte Journalism Collaborative 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.
