NoDa apartment eviction highlights affordable housing need

CHARLOTTE -- Scott Stewart lost his apartment, and his job.

“Hits me double whammy," Stewart said. He was the maintenance and property manager for Twin Oaks apartments in NoDa. He's also a resident.

“This might not be the best place but this was home to 18 families in here," Stewart said.

But after Shea Homes bought the property, "Not only did I lose my place but I lost my job with these people,” Stewart said. “And there was no warning in advance to tell that this was going on."

The company is evicting the tenants, with plans to build more expensive townhomes.

“They don't want us here and they don't want these apartments here no more,” Stewart said.

"It's really, really frustrating,” Twin Oaks resident and mother-of-two, Laura Veira said. “You can't sleep, you can't eat. We're just awake at 5 o'clock in the morning with our eyes open. It's really scary."

Shea Homes said Twin Oaks residents now have until September 17th to move, living rent free until then, with a $2,000 dollar relocation stipend.

But that 2 months to move is not enough for many.  

Twin Oaks residents paid anywhere from around $400 to $600 hundred dollars in rent.

Similar-priced units have waiting lists upwards of six months long, because of the lack of affordable housing.  

"There's a great demand in Charlotte. There's actually a need for another 34,000 [affordable housing] units in Charlotte,” Rebekah Baker of The Housing Partnership said.

Waiting lists are even longer for income-based units.

“Up to a year wait list depending on what area they want to be in,” Baker said.

The city has a goal to build 5,000 affordable units over the next 3 years.

“There's a lot of waiting lists. Everybody has a waiting list,” Veira said. “All of the places that are affordable for single mothers, for low income housing people, are filled up."

“We all want to move but we just aint got nowhere else to go yet,” Stewart said.

Twin Oaks owners, Shea Homes, declined our request for an interview.