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Affordable Housing in Charlotte: What One City's History Tells Us about America's Pressing Problem
336 pages, Paperback
Published May 27, 2025
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January 8, 2026Learning what NOAH is/was (naturally occurring affordable housing)
Learning that segregated housing did not always exist during Jim Crow (Charlotte specific block mentioned in Chapter 1)
Learning that the shift to the suburbs in the early 1900s coincided with a rise in segregated neighborhoods in Charlotte
Learning about the creation of the FHA by the New Deal in Chapter 2
Learning that most people did not buy homes in the early to mid 1900s. If they did, they were incredibly wealthy because you had to pay a significant down payment and then the rest of the payment in 5 years
Learning that long-term amortized loans were created during the 1930s
Learning about the creation of USHA which would focus on public housing
Lack of building code
One of the subtle issues with replacing substandard housing with early apartments in Charlotte is that the substandard housing was usually surrounded by grocery stores, restaurants, retail stores, etc. The early subsidized apartments were not build around or did not include these things (Chapter 2)
Chapter 3 dealt with FHA 608, a temporary program (lasted 3 years, 1947-1950) created to provide subsidies to private companies to encourage them to build rental units
The way it did this was by providing 90-100% of the costs of production via loans. If enough rental units were occupied, the developers and landlords could make a ton of money. This became known as "mortgaging out". Essentially, the loan provided by the government covered almost all of the upfront costs. Once the units were built and occupied, the developers and landlords would make more than enough on rent, meaning they could easily pay back the loans and keep the excess money as profit.
In Charlotte, this led to the construction of high income and low income rental units, mostly high income. Some realized that low income rental units could be even more profitable however, as the cost to acquire the land for low income units was lower.
The program was ultimately shut down and had some scandals. Because developers invested almost nothing on the front end, they could walk away from the project with basically no downsides. Although this happened, it was very rare (66 out of 6,648 projects experienced default). Additionally, some developers did not pay basic minimum wages. Also, some developers were able to receive loans that exceeded the actual cost of the projects, meaning they were just pocketing free money.
Overall, the program stimulated rental housing production nationwide. Rental housing developed this way helped blue collar workers but not the poorest of the poor. Critics argued that cities like Charlotte needed government-owned public housing and government-assisted private housing.
Some places in Charlotte, like Morningside (replaced by Villages at Commonwealth), Plaza Terrace, and Selwyn Village that are still around today that I have seen were built during this time by this program.
Learning that segregated housing did not always exist during Jim Crow (Charlotte specific block mentioned in Chapter 1)
Learning that the shift to the suburbs in the early 1900s coincided with a rise in segregated neighborhoods in Charlotte
Learning about the creation of the FHA by the New Deal in Chapter 2
Learning that most people did not buy homes in the early to mid 1900s. If they did, they were incredibly wealthy because you had to pay a significant down payment and then the rest of the payment in 5 years
Learning that long-term amortized loans were created during the 1930s
Learning about the creation of USHA which would focus on public housing
Lack of building code
One of the subtle issues with replacing substandard housing with early apartments in Charlotte is that the substandard housing was usually surrounded by grocery stores, restaurants, retail stores, etc. The early subsidized apartments were not build around or did not include these things (Chapter 2)
Chapter 3 dealt with FHA 608, a temporary program (lasted 3 years, 1947-1950) created to provide subsidies to private companies to encourage them to build rental units
The way it did this was by providing 90-100% of the costs of production via loans. If enough rental units were occupied, the developers and landlords could make a ton of money. This became known as "mortgaging out". Essentially, the loan provided by the government covered almost all of the upfront costs. Once the units were built and occupied, the developers and landlords would make more than enough on rent, meaning they could easily pay back the loans and keep the excess money as profit.
In Charlotte, this led to the construction of high income and low income rental units, mostly high income. Some realized that low income rental units could be even more profitable however, as the cost to acquire the land for low income units was lower.
The program was ultimately shut down and had some scandals. Because developers invested almost nothing on the front end, they could walk away from the project with basically no downsides. Although this happened, it was very rare (66 out of 6,648 projects experienced default). Additionally, some developers did not pay basic minimum wages. Also, some developers were able to receive loans that exceeded the actual cost of the projects, meaning they were just pocketing free money.
Overall, the program stimulated rental housing production nationwide. Rental housing developed this way helped blue collar workers but not the poorest of the poor. Critics argued that cities like Charlotte needed government-owned public housing and government-assisted private housing.
Some places in Charlotte, like Morningside (replaced by Villages at Commonwealth), Plaza Terrace, and Selwyn Village that are still around today that I have seen were built during this time by this program.
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