April 1, 2025

As the Fair Housing Month sponsored by the National Association of Realtors opened, staff members from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee (CRC) offered a session on local efforts to encourage nondiscrimination in housing and public accommodations.

The CRC fields citizen complaints of discrimination. About a quarter of inquiries led to fair-housing based investigations in the city’s fiscal year 2024. About a third of those lead to negotiated settlements. Discrimination by race or disability are the primary violations alleged. It is likely impossible to even estimate what percentage of complaints in a city of a million people actually make their way to the CRC.

Does the kid-gloves treatment that has always characterized Charlotte’s fair housing enforcement actually work? In the 2024 fiscal year, according to CRC data, more than $26,000 was awarded in settlements. And as staff said this morning, some complainants only want an apology.

But the inquiries keep coming. Investigator Rhonda Jackson, in answer to a question, said the Committee receives two to three calls per workday from residents perceiving discriminatory action against them. That might mean 500-750 calls annually.

Slides from the staff’s PowerPoint presentation are below today’s video. All of the slides may be downloaded as a PDF here.