Habitat for Humanity will break ground on a development in west Charlotte on Wednesday. The local Habitat office says this will be its largest development in the Charlotte region.
The 39-home community will be built where the Plato Price School once stood. The school was established in 1915 to provide education to Black children in west Charlotte and was closed in 1966 during desegregation. The building was demolished in the early 1980s.
The city of Charlotte donated the land to Habitat for Humanity in 2018 for affordable housing.
The goal of the development is to make it easier for residents who are renting in the area to own a home there, said Shannon Hinson, the Charlotte Habitat’s vice president of organizational advancement and development.
“What changes the trajectory is the homeownership piece," Hinton said. "We know that homeowners have ... 41 times the savings that renters do. It brings them up to make other decisions and not to have to make hard choices.”
According to Habitat, a quarter of the residents who live in the West Boulevard corridor own their own homes. That’s compared to 57% for the rest of Mecklenburg County. Hinton says that that closing the gap between those who rent and those who own their homes in the corridor is important.
“There are people who are living and thriving in this community," Hinton said. "It’s important that they can have the ability to build equity.”
Habitat will begin construction on the development next year and is expected to finish the community by late 2024.