This commentary was published in the Charlotte Observer on Sept. 9, 2010, with fellow clergy leaders south Charlotte: Peter Brown, St. Mark's Lutheran Church; Ken Carter, Providence United Methodist Church; Steve Eason, Myers Park Presbyterian Church; Chip Edens, Christ Episcopal Church; James Howell, Myers Park United Methodist Church; Steve Shoemaker, Myers Park Baptist Church; and Steve Wilson, Little Church on the Lane:
We've known it for 10 years. We have an affordable housing crisis in Charlotte that affects thousands of families: the working poor, the nurse, the teacher, the construction worker and those who are homeless and one step away from having a home. We estimate we need 12,000 units. City and county government cannot build us out of this crisis.
We also have a "concentration of poverty" crisis. Look at a city map which depicts concentration of poverty, and there is a dramatic "Crescent of Poverty" which begins in west Charlotte, sweeps up over the north edge of uptown and ends in east Charlotte. This Poverty Crescent affects everything in Charlotte: schools, economic development and a vital "social capital" built from relationships across racial and economic lines.
Myers Park clergy are concerned about this looming and worsening crisis. We support a "locational policy" that will disperse mixed-income housing fairly and healthily across our city. We are also doing something. We are working on a mixed-income housing initiative in the middle of Myers Park which will provide housing for a few families and wrap support services around them so they will thrive in their new homes.
Our faith commitments compel us to a hospitality that welcomes others, that sees in the stranger a neighbor. This is a modest step, but only our first step. We believe others will join us. If this crisis is to be adequately addressed it will need everyone's help: public, private, faith communities and the active goodwill of all our citizens toward making this city a hospitable place for all people across economic, social, racial and religious lines.
The prophet Isaiah spoke about "the repairer of the breach ... the restorer of streets to live in." This can be our aspiration and holy work together: to repair breaches and restore streets and create safe homes and neighborhoods for all who long for this essential need of human well-being, and to discover new neighbors, and to make our city truly a community. Let us make southern hospitality more than a southern charm, also the mark of a city passionate about repairing the breach and restoring every street as a good place to live.
