These are options Mecklenburg is considering to stop ‘corporate vultures’ in housing
Mecklenburg County officials are grappling with what action they should take to slow the impact of “corporate vultures” with a stranglehold on the housing market.
County commissioners on Tuesday reacted to a study from The Lee Institute and UNC Charlotte Urban Institute by trying to identify the legal authority they can wield to reduce the number of investor-owned operations that local leaders say has made homeownership inaccessible.
“We are just kind of perpetuating this cycle of poverty and lack of access to even just the American dream,” said District 4 commissioner Mark Jerrell. “Corporate landlords are preying on our most vulnerable neighborhoods. It’s legal, and it is not ethical.”
The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer detailed corporate investor growth in North Carolina in the series “Security for Sale”. About two dozen corporations at the time owned more than 40,000 single-family homes across the state, including about 1 of 20 in Charlotte.
At this week’s meeting, a Lee Institute presentation showed that corporate firms owned between 11,000 and 13,000 single-family homes in Mecklenburg County.
A survey of 1,600 residents in a two-month joint study conducted in April and May by the Lee Institute and the Urban Institute revealed that 75% of respondents said investor-owned properties “negatively impacted” their communities. Another 79% indicated corporate investors were directly responsible for housing being largely unaffordable and threatening personal economic mobility.
“These are corporate vultures coming for property and land,” said District 1 representative Elaine Powell, who said this issue has been so concerning that one neighborhood in the district created a homeowners’ association to protect it from the influx of investors. “This is a negative impact on their neighborhoods, but not only to the neighborhood.”
Mecklenburg County recommendations
Angelique Gaines, a research associate at UNC Charlotte, recommended some limited actions leaders could consider, including regulating corporate landlords, prohibiting investors from purchasing single-family homes and increasing public education on the topic.
At-large Commissioner Arthur Griffin recommended measures such as rent control and inclusionary zoning. But Mecklenburg County can’t do so without accompanying legislation, Griffin said.
In February, state Rep. Kelly Alexander, D-Mecklenburg, introduced the Home Ownership Market Manipulation Act to limit the number of single-family homes that people or businesses can buy in the state. The measure was co-sponsored by Democrats in Mecklenburg, Guilford, and Cumberland counties. It languished in the gatekeeper Rules and Operations Committee.
In separate legislation, U.S. Reps. Jeff Jackson and Alma Adams, both Charlotte Democrats, introduced the American Neighborhoods Protection Act earlier this month. That bill would require corporate owners of more than 75 single-family homes to pay an annual fee of $10,000 per home into a housing trust fund to be used as down payment assistance for families.
“We already have a housing shortage that is driving up home prices and rent,” Jackson said. “If we allow unchecked corporate purchasing of houses — especially if they are then rented out — it makes the goal of homeownership even more difficult for families.”
Jessica Moreno, a housing justice organizer with Action NC, suggested the county invests in legal aid services for tenants to fight predatory practices of corporate landlords. She also proposed increasing fines and fees on landlords’ real estate purchases and considering tenant eviction protections.
“They (county commissioners) control the budget,” she told the Observer. “They have the land, and they can land bank for that. Right now, there aren’t enough houses being built that are affordable.”
