Charlotte Family Housing

Charlotte Family Housing (CFH) is an innovative solution for family homelessness in the greater Charlotte community. Charlotte ranked #2 in the nation in 2010 for its high percentage jump in family homelessness, up 36%, according to a national survey from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Charlotte Emergency Housing, Family Promise of Charlotte, and Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing (W.I.S.H.) merged in response to this growing number of homeless families in the community, to better serve this population in a more effective manner.

In its two-phase continuum of care model, CFH provides supportive transitional shelter and affordable housing for its families. During both phases, the families work closely with social workers to receive intensive family-focused care and support such as vocational counseling, parenting skills and financial literacy. CFH empowers families to take positive steps in both phases to achieve financial independence and self-reliance. 

In addition, CFH will work closely with Charlotte community volunteers in order to drive success for homeless families. The model encompasses both short-term and long-term volunteer opportunities to help the families succeed. CFH will continue to foster a movement of long-term engagement with the families in order to break the vicious cycle of generational poverty.  CFH will achieve this by providing training and a multi-year support system to community volunteers to work closely with the families to sustain their success.

CFH addresses Goal 1 of Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Ten-Year Implementation Plan to End and Prevent Homelessness: Get homeless families and individuals into safe, appropriate permanent housing as soon as possible. CFH will use the rapid rehousing model to move families from homelessness into temporary shelter and then into permanent housing with supportive services, focusing on the issues each family needs for stable living and greater self-sufficiency.

CFH also addresses Goal #3 of the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness: Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth and children in 10 years. Within that, CFH specifically addresses Objective #10: Transform homeless services to crisis response systems that prevent homelessness and rapidly return people who experience homelessness to stable housing. CFH uses a Continuum of Care to organize and deliver housing and services to meet the specific needs of people who are homeless as they move to stable housing and maximize self-sufficiency.

With three different sheltering sites and scattered site permanent housing, the following represents the anticipated number of families that will be served in a year:
Shelter:
-Plaza Place (former Charlotte Emergency Housing shelter): 45 families/year
-Hawthorne Place (located inside St. John’s Baptist Church): 18 families/year
-Family Promise (various congregations host families for a week at a time): 12 families/year
-Total: 75 families
Permanent Housing:
-Scattered site apartments: 100 families/year
-Total: 100 families
Total in Shelter and Permanent Housing:
-175 families/year totaling 612 household members (assuming an average of 3.5 people per household)