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| ADOBE STOCK |
| As gentrification expands in Charlotte’s inner city working class neighborhoods, longtime residents face displacement because of escalating tax bills. |
Gentrification isn’t going anywhere.
In Charlotte, it affects historically Black working class neighborhoods. As higher-income residents move in, property taxes rise, and lower-income and elderly homeowners struggle to keep pace as affordable housing becomes harder to find.
On May 21, The Post will host a webinar, “Dealing with the Impact of Gentrification in Black Communities,” a town hall on gentrification’s impact on Black neighborhoods and how it can be managed. Registration is encouraged.
“Gentrification is something you can actually see,” said Alesha Brown, founder of For the Struggle, a housing advocacy nonprofit. “It’s evident and it’s offensive.”
Brown’s advocacy is rooted in legality and community. With a background in civil rights law and policy work in New York City and her Charlotte-based nonprofit, Brown focuses on combating systemic racial and social injustice. When it comes to conversations about gentrification, Brown said it’s usually one-sided.
“I would say higher income people who are gentrifying neighborhoods” should be involved, she said. “But the reality is, they do not care.”
For the Struggle has launched initiatives to protect elders from displacement, offer accessible legal support, and preserve the cultural identity of historically Black neighborhoods in west Charlotte. Between 2019 and 2022 Brown litigated a case, pro bono, to help an elderly woman get her home back after it was sold to an investor.
“If I didn’t have the passion to protect residents, especially our senior citizens, from displacement, I would have said no,” she said, “I truly believe God sent me here to do the work that I’m doing.”
While some would label such neighborhood changes as development, displacement also leads to a loss of cultural bonds built over generations.
“Such detrimental impacts include, but are not limited to displacement due to drastic increase in property value and taxes,” Brown said, “disrespect towards the history and culture of impacted neighborhoods via building homes that do not match the character and aesthetic of neighborhoods and welcoming businesses that existing residents do not want or benefit from; and eventual erasure of history and culture of impacted neighborhoods.
Development not only uproots lives, it strips long-term residents of generational wealth created by homeownership.
“I think we as Black folks need to understand the value in keeping property and land in our families and the impact it has on building wealth,” Brown said.
“Eventually, rent goes up, property taxes rise, and developers try to pay residents much more money than they ever paid for their properties,” said Nadia Anderson, a member of the city of Charlotte’s Equitable Development and NEST commissions, both of which address gentrification. The problem is that this isn’t enough to buy another house in the same neighborhood.”
Said Brown: “People who have been living in such a neighborhood, perhaps for generations, no longer feel like they belong there.”
