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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Charlotte City Council members now have city staff members’ recommendations for improving the city’s affordable housing supply and ensuring good conditions in those homes.

Code enforcement managers presented their findings to a council committee Monday afternoon.

The council started looking at where Charlotte could do better after tenants were forced out of the Lamplighter Inn off Freedom Drive in December. The former motel had become permanent housing for dozens and had fallen into total disrepair.

Charlotte spent more than $64,000 to send a delegation of City Council members and staff to Germany in 2024 for an economic development trip that coincided with a Carolina Panthers game in Munich.

The city revealed the final price tag for the November trip Wednesday: $64,488.86.

The majority of the City Council — Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson and Council members Ed Driggs, Marjorie Molina, Tariq Bokhari, Malcolm Graham, LaWana Mayfield and Victoria Watlington — made the trip alongside six city staff members, according to the new information provided by the city in response to a public records request. The city paid for everyone’s lodging and most other expenses, though Bokhari “declined out-of-pocket reimbursements.”

The trip also included representatives from Mecklenburg County, the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance and the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

CHARLOTTE — A new year in Charlotte marks a new fight to get more affordable housing in the fast-growing city but a city councilwoman said the concern to find people homes is ongoing and could have repercussions.

On Wednesday, 200 more units opened in southwest Charlotte at the Residences at Cedar Creek.

“I’m just so thankful for the community that I’m in today,” said resident Gwendolyn Twiggs. “Good people. Clean. Just enjoying it.”

Twiggs said she experienced homelessness for months after her mother died in 2023.

The opportunity is something she is grateful for.

“Never been through that before,” she said. “Just to have the opportunity today, in my life, to have my own place. It means a lot to me.”

A group of five people huddled in Archie Hoskins’ motel room off Freedom Drive on Nov. 27, with other people circulating in and out throughout the afternoon to check on things or ask a quick question before going about their daily tasks.

The gathering looked like so many families coming together on the day before Thanksgiving to catch up and share memories, but this was a family brought together by necessity — neighbors who had been living in Lamplighter Inn but were now facing eviction by no fault of their own.

Instead of memories, the group shared advice on how to best utilize the support being offered by community organizers like Apryl Lewis and Robert Dawkins, who were there at the motel that afternoon.

When Newell Presbyterian Church opened its first sanctuary in 1892, the area was surrounded by dairy farms, cotton mills, and tobacco fields. Trees covered nearby hills. The city of Charlotte was miles away.

Today, Newell is part of fast-growing northeast Charlotte. Subdivisions and apartment complexes line Rocky River Road West. Another 650-home development is in the works nearby. Bustling commercial districts, as well as one of the state’s largest universities, are minutes away. But few changes have come to the church. A new sanctuary opened in 1979 with room for 200 members. Today, 50 might attend on a given Sunday. “We’ve grown small,” says pastor Matt Conner.

What the church does have is land. Alongside its three buildings is a grassy field on Old Concord Road that makes up half of its 10 acres. A few years ago, Conner and church leaders began to imagine new ways to use it. Conner wondered: Is just cutting the grass cutting it anymore?

CHARLOTTE – The C.W. Williams Community Health Center hosted its 10th annual Back to School Community Health Fair on Aug. 10 at the Stratford Richardson YMCA.

The theme of the event was “Powering Communities Through Caring  Connections.”

The event was part of a national  campaign to increase awareness of the many ways in which community health centers across the country provide affordable healthcare to more than 32 million patients annually.

The C.W. Williams Community Health Center distributed care kits to people experiencing homelessness and provided maternal & child health supplies and educational materials to underserved patients.