Charlotte Community Recovery Task Force - Small Business, Housing and the Airport

Mayor Vi Lyles and Charlotte City Council have assembled the Community Recovery Task Force to support families and businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic and help plan for recovery. The task force will focus on three specific areas: Small Business, Housing, and the Airport. Task force objectives include:

• Anticipating and planning for Charlotte's post-recovery challenges

• Listening to the community regarding the challenges people are facing as they navigate a new working and living environment

• Developing recommendations for how Charlotte, specifically city government, can pivot to support changes needed as a result of the pandemic

• Providing residents with a long-term vision for a healthy, stable economic and civic environment

Mayor Lyles and Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt will lead the task force and develop the final community report. Each Recovery task force area includes four city council members and seven sector leaders.

Each meeting will be broadcast on the Gov Channel and Gov Channel online, and livestreamed to Facebook and YouTube. A playlist of previous Task Force meetings is available on YouTube.

Housing Task Force Group Next meeting: Thursday, May 21, noon to 1:30 p.m. Send your questions, recommendations or stories to Housingtaskforce@charlottenc.gov.

Documents from all meetings may be accessed here scroll to bottom for the Housing Task force

City Council Members

• Malcolm Graham

• Braxton Winston

• Larken Egleston

• Renee Johnson

Sector Leaders

• Lee Cochran Senior Vice President Laurel Street Residential

• Fred Dodson Executive Vice President The Housing Partnership

• T. Anthony Lindsey Commissioner, NC Real Estate Commission Caldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

• Connie Staudinger Executive Vice President Horizon Development Properties/ Inlivian

• Pamela Wideman Director Housing & Neighborhood Services

• Kathy Cummings Senior Vice President Homeownership Solutions & Affordable Housing Programs Bank of America

• Kim Graham Executive Director Greater Charlotte Apartment Association

• Deronda Metz Director of Social Services Salvation Army Center of Hope Shelter

The first two meetings were focused on leve lsetting the impacts of COVID-19. Following this, the Task Force developed and adopted a work plan and has begun researching and discussing work plan items such that recommendations can be brought back to City Council (see below for more details on the work plan).

The Task Force has received presentations from:

• Anthony Trotman, Mecklenburg County Assistant Manager (Lead agency for homelessness support and services)

• Kathryn Firmin-Sellers, United Way of Central Carolinas (COVID-19 Response Fund)

• Daniel Mosteller, N.C. District Attorney’s Office (landlord-tenant laws as relates to the eviction-stay order regarding hotel residents)

• Judge Kimberly Best and Judge Elizabeth Trosch, Mecklenburg County District Court (eviction process and current status of evictions)

• Mary Williams, City’s Community Relations Department (Eviction avoidance through Dispute Settlement Program/Landlord-Tenant Mediation) Action Plan:

The Task Force adopted a 90-day work plan on May 7, 2020. The work plan consists of items in seven key categories:

1. Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing,

2. Financial Assistance,

3. Evictions,

4. Homelessness and Supportive Services,

5. Regulatory and Legislative Issues,

6. Marketing and Communications, and

7. General

Each category in the work plan has been assigned a timeline that identifies when the task will be discussed at a meeting. Sector Task Force members will lead each work plan category based on their area of expertise. The role of the lead is to gather information to understand what is happening in the community related to the issue, and to lead the discussion for each item. City Council members were not assigned as leads so that they could float between each work plan category as needed.

For each item in the work plan, time will be allotted for public hearings/public testimonies, including bringing in subject matter experts. Leads will be responsible for identifying these subject matter experts.

Overview of Next Steps: While acknowledging that many residents are grappling with both current and soon to be delinquent mortgage and rent relief coupled with building on information learned in a recent Housing Recovery Task Force meeting about the 1,800 pending evictions when the courts reopen on June 1, 2020; The following view to the following table details a proposal for dispersing $10 million of the $20 million of funding to address affordable housing in our community. This recommended spending supports work plan items 1, 2 and 4.

The Task Force will continue to meet weekly to work on items in the work plan. A final report will be submitted to City Council with recommendations; recommendations related to urgent items will be brought forward as needed.