County of Mecklenburg issued the following announcement on Jan. 26.
Our vision is that homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring in Charlotte-Mecklenburg; and every person has access to permanent, affordable housing with the resources to sustain it.
A broad consortium of the public and private sectors is pleased to announce the release of A Home for All: Charlotte-Mecklenburg's Strategy to End and Prevent Homelessness – Part 1: Strategic Framework.
The Strategic Framework represents the culmination of this phase of the community's work to develop a comprehensive, transformative strategy to address housing instability and homelessness. Cathy Bessant, Vice Chair of Global Strategy at Bank of America; and Eugene A. Woods, President and CEO of Atrium Health, served as the co-chairs of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing & Homelessness Strategy (CMHHS), which is the body that produced this framework.
"Homelessness is a human and community tragedy that impacts all of us," said Cathy Bessant, Vice Chair, Global Strategy, Bank of America. "Our focus has been on developing an approach that addresses the full continuum of need, and on helping to drive meaningful and lasting change. With everyone at the table, including the public, non-profit, and private sectors, we plan to support existing work while creating and executing innovative, new approaches."
"It has been an honor and a privilege to co-chair the 2025 Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing and Homelessness Strategy, alongside Cathy Bessant, over the past year," said Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health. "We've seen firsthand the deep commitment and incredible spirit of collaboration in this public-private partnership as we have worked together to address one of the most pressing challenges our community faces, and this partnership will undoubtedly continue to grow stronger."
Included in the Strategic Framework is a high-level overview of recommendations across nine areas: prevention; shelter; affordable housing; cross-sector supports; policy; funding; data; communications; and long-term strategy. These recommendations are further organized by the values that undergird them: addressing historical and structural inequities; expanding access to and availability of inventory and resources; coordinating systems to ensure they are easy to navigate for the individuals who need to use them; and changing the system to sustain the long-term impact of the work enacted.
"This effort is our community at its best," said Michael Smith, CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners. "A seemingly insurmountable social justice challenge being taken on by a broad coalition of dedicated professionals, community leaders, formerly homeless and executive leaders. The strategic plan is comprehensive and well-crafted to achieve the shared vision of rare, brief and non-recurring homelessness."
Launched almost one year ago, CMHHS has incorporated representation from individuals with lived experience of housing instability and homelessness as well as providers who serve on the front lines of this work; representatives from the each of our community's public sector entities; members of the corporate business sectors, including healthcare, workforce development, childcare, transportation, and other complementary sectors; non-profits; funders; faith communities; grassroots organizations; and housing developers, landlords, and real estate entities. The recommendations in A Home for All have been informed by research and best practices, including through directly engaging subject matter experts and community leaders from across the country.
"To put it another way, this is a best-practice informed, data-driven framework that has been wrapped in our local context so that it is poised for action" said Dena R. Diorio, Mecklenburg County Manager.
Today also marks the day our community comes together to complete the annual Point-in-Time Count, a required activity to receive federal homelessness funding. The Point-in-Time Count is led by Mecklenburg County and known locally as "EverybodyCountsCLT." The goal of the Point-in-Time Count is to ensure that everyone experiencing literal homelessness is counted. Releasing the framework on this day serves as an important reminder for why we need solutions, now.
The goal of CMHHS is to develop a strategy that makes our vision possible: that homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring in Charlotte-Mecklenburg; a strategy that is focused on providing every person access to permanent, affordable housing and the resources to sustain their housing. The release of the Strategic Framework represents a shift in this work from plan development to implementation, turning the recommendations into action.
To help interested parties unpack the recommendations as well as suggest tangible ways to support implementation of them, a toolkit has been developed.
Original source can be found here.
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