Construction workers work on a new condo development in Charlotte, North Carolina. Housing prices in the region have increased 72% since 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)
A government shutdown that lasts beyond November would be “incredibly harmful” to efforts to provide safe and affordable housing to the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, U.S. Rep. Alma Adams (NC-12) said Thursday.
The record-breaking government shutdown has already been “devastating” for citizens who have trouble accessing healthcare and food assistance or paying rent, Adams said.
U.S. Rep. Alma Adams (Screenshot: Housing Webinar)“We’re talking about thousands of residents who will not be receiving the essential rental assistance payments that they’re due and unhoused people will not receive the housing support that they need,” said Adams, adding that she hopes the shutdown doesn’t go beyond next week.
Adams noted the threats the shutdown poses to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) rental assistance programs such as Housing Choice Vouchers, Projects-Based Rental Assistance and public housing. Citizens who receive such assistance are expected to have rent paid through November.
But assistance from HUD will come more slowly due to Trump administration-ordered firings and furloughs, Adams said. Since January, roughly 2,300 HUD employees have been laid off, she said, and staffing at HUD’s Fair Housing Office has been “significantly reduced,” which gives citizens less recourse to address housing discrimination.
“People who need that kind of support from those agencies, will continue to face delays in receiving the services, because if you go into an agency and you fire half the people, then the people who are depending on getting access to services, they don’t have access to a person who can help them, so that becomes a problem as well,” Adams said.
She said Congress must come together and pass a bipartisan solution to the problem, because “people need housing, people need health care and we’ve got the resources to take care of both.”
The congresswoman made her remarks during the final installment of her “Charlotte Matters” webinar series, which was put together to discuss how the government shutdown is impacting Charlotte and the rest of North Carolina. Previous topics included healthcare, education and hunger.
Adams said President Donald Trump is being dishonest when he says there’s no money to provide America’s most vulnerable citizens decent housing, health care and food assistance.
“You’ve got money to send $40 billion over to Argentina or some other place,” Adams said. “You’ve got money to tear down half of the White House to put up a ballroom.”
Housing, health care and hunger are not partisan issues, Adams noted.
“It’s about being human and everybody needs a decent, affordable place to live,” she said.
Skyrocketing rents, increasing evictions
Karen Pelletier (Photo: Screenshot from housing webinar)Adams was joined by a panel of housing experts and advocates for people experiencing homelessness.
Karen Pelletier, division director of Housing Innovation and Stabilization Services for Mecklenburg County, said the county has been able to help cover rents for about 200 households that receive HUD subsidies.
“We’ve been able to provide that support and continue to pay the salaries of staff that are also federally funded,” Pelletier said. “And so what this shutdown has created is great stress in the community between staff that are wondering when those payments are going to run out, landlords wondering when the rent payments are going to stop.”
She said individuals with long histories of homelessness, seniors, children and other vulnerable citizens who live in subsidized housing programs are now at risk of losing housing because of changes to HUD policy.
O’Shauna Hunter, director of Housing Solutions for A Home for All with the United Way of Greater Charlotte, noted that the Charlotte area has more than 2,000 people who are unsheltered . Evictions are increasing and rents are skyrocketing, she said.
O’Shauna Hunter (Photo: Screenshot from housing webinar)Hunter said more resources are needed to ensure homelessness is “rare, brief and non recurring.”
“We need case management and support to those who are on their journey to housing stability,” Hunter said. “We need efforts to prevent people from becoming unstably housed or losing their housing, and then we need the production of more housing and all types of housing.”
Latonya Agard, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness, said she’s concerned about Trump administration plans to end funding for Housing First initiatives, which prioritize providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness.
Latonya Agard (Photo: Screenshot from housing webinar)“This is the program that works, the evidence is there, and it is distressing to know that the current administration is deciding not to fund Housing First programs and then to turn to other programs that really do place more obstacles, rather than abilities to help in front of people,” Agard said.
Adams began the housing webinar discussing housing issues in Charlotte, which she said is one of the greatest challenges facing the city. That was true, she said, even before the Trump administration’s “reckless federal cuts to housing and the government shut down.”
She noted that 157 people move to Charlotte-Mecklenburg everyday, which has placed pressures on the region’s housing supply.
“We simply are not building enough housing to meet our housing demand and this, of course, has led to housing prices skyrocketing in the Charlotte region,” Adams said.
Housing prices in the region have increased 72% since 2017, compared to 41% nationally.
“Charlotte is experiencing a significant rise in gentrification as a result, pushing out residents of historically Black working-class neighborhoods, because they are some of the only affordable locations in our city,” Adams said.
Adams said corporate home ownership continues to be a serious problem. In 2023, 26% of all single family homes in Charlotte were owned by large corporations, she said.
“I believe a home should be a place for you to start a family, build your life, but unchecked corporate housing ownership is really making that less and less attainable for Charlotteans,” Adams said.
She noted that she introduced the American Neighborhood Protection Act to address the problem of mass corporate ownership of housing.
“My bill requires any corporation that owns more than 75 single family homes to pay an additional $10,000 per home annually,” Adams said. “These funds would be placed into a housing trust fund for down payment assistant grants to families who are purchasing homes.”
The law would lower housing costs, increase housing supply and provide financial assistance for families looking to buy a home and start their lives, she said.
“As Charlotte navigates our housing issues, the government shutdown and federal cuts made this year are only worsening the problems facing our residents,” Adams said.
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