City of Charlotte Community Recovery Task Force on Housing – Evictions Subcommittee’s Recommendation

For the past several months, GCAA Executive Director Kim Graham has been leading the Eviction Focus Area of the City of Charlotte’s Community Recovery Task Force on Housing.  The Focus Area team worked on several identified tasks.  One task included working with the courts to improve the evictions process.  On July 23, 2020, Ms. Graham presented the team’s recommendations:

1. Allocate additional resources for the City’s Dispute Settlement Program (Community Relations Department) to increase staff, buildout marketing campaign, recruit/train additional volunteers, engage an evaluation specialist to assess effectiveness of the program and add a component for commercial tenant/landlord mediation.
2. That the Charlotte City Council add NC State Statute 42-36.1B – Post judgment relief agreements proposed legislation to its legislative agenda to provide greater protections for tenants who experience an eviction with money judgment to remove the judgment from their records once the judgment is satisfied.
3. Allocate resources for widespread training for rental property owners to understand how to evaluate ex-offender applicants to reduce rejection rates, as well as a robust campaign to educate the community about this issue.

The next step involves these, and other focus area recommendations being further discussed at the City Council’s Great Neighborhoods Committee. A special thanks goes to GCAA members Chris Loebsack with Loebsack & Brownlee and Norm Praet with Brownlee, Whitlow & Praet for serving on the Eviction Focus Area team, providing invaluable insight.