HUD's $10 Million Solution in Charlotte

You may have recently read about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) loan guarantee of $10 million of taxpayer dollars to revitalize the Double Oaks neighborhood in Charlotte, NC. A little fact about the HUD loan that isn't mentioned in the government press release is that Double Oaks was one of the most blighted areas in Charlotte. The area was project housing at its worst, plagued by drugs, violence, gangs, and in the middle of it all were good folks with nowhere else to live.

What $10 million buys
The $10 million loan guaranteed to the city of Charlotte will allow the city to purchase 70 acres in the Double Oaks neighborhood. The loan is part of a $120 million project that will create new housing and retail space in the area. This purchase will complete the site assembly of 98 acres in preparation for the eventual development of 108,000 square feet of retail space and 940 new apartments, condominiums and single-family homes.

HUD's loan guarantee will leverage $15 million in other public funding and $95 million in private sector investment to stimulate development of a new mixed-use community that includes a new grocery store, retail establishments, office space and mixed-income housing.

Plans by city officials to tear the exiting housing complexes down and, in the fashion of all big government, make it better themselves. City officials have said the project will involve a combination of public and private funding to make this a utopian neighborhood with a mix of low- and middle-income housing. While it sounds great on paper, the real question is, will it work?

Making it work
I was skeptical the first time Charlotte city officials embarked on a similar housing development project. They tore down the old projects at Earle Village, another area of urban blight, and replaced them with a townhouse community, where a certain number of units were allocated to low-income subsidized households and the remainder were sold to middle-income, mostly young professionals who had an eye for improving the community.

The new development has thus far created positive growth for the area. It's been a few years since the community first broke ground, but crime levels haven't returned to the dangerous levels of when the area was dominated by government-subsidized housing projects. Despite what some critics argued in the past, the low-income folks aren't at war with the middle-income ones, and in fact, the lower-income folks are most likely being encouraged in their attempts to better themselves by living near other families working hard to create safer, more productive communities.

Do I like big government? No. Do I want private enterprise to fix the problems of society? Yes. But sometimes it takes a vision of shared responsibility to make a difference in an area and in people's lives.

Want to know more about real estate in and around Charlotte, NC? Visit Charlotterealestatevoice.com or Leighbrownandassociates.com.

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