For nearly two decades, the organization QC Family Tree has been rooted in creating social change in Charlotte’s historic Enderly Park neighborhood. One endeavor tackles the displacement of residents by providing affordable housing.
Tracy Peeler, 20, grew up on Parkway Avenue in the Enderly Park neighborhood. He lived in a two-bedroom home with his mother. He has vivid memories of how his neighborhood used to be.
“There were just older houses, (a) couple of duplexes. It was very affordable to live back there,” Peeler said. “If you drive back there now, there are three-story townhouses with garages, and they stick out like a sore thumb.”
According to UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library research, Enderly Park transitioned into an African American neighborhood in 1980. Greg Jarrell is one of the founders of QC Family Tree and a resident of the neighborhood. He said the demographic of the community and other aspects are changing.
“The economic status that the people who live here have, and that has changed with the racial status as well," Jarrell said. "This neighborhood used to be almost all Black, mostly very poor. And now there are a lot more white folks, a lot more middle-class families who have moved in.”
Jarrell lives in the neighborhood on the corner of Parkway Avenue and Tuckaseegee Road, not too far from where Peeler and his family used to live. In 2020, the Peelers moved to Beatties Ford Road because where they lived no longer accepted Section 8. The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program supports low-income families, the elderly and the disabled to afford decent and safe housing.
“Growing up, that’s how we paid rent; that’s how we got groceries. It was Section 8 and food stamps,” Peeler said. “If we didn’t have either one of those, I don’t know where I would be right now.”
Peeler moved back to the area by himself after graduating high school from Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology because of his relationship with Greg Jarrell and partner Helms Jarrell, the other founder of QC Family Tree.
Growing up, Peeler would attend community meals that the organization hosted. He now lives and manages a light blue house that QC Family Tree owns, which is also used as a studio space for artists in the community.
QC Family Tree provides a program for about two months where artists create art advocating for social change in the community.
Peeler said the spot provides security while he's pursuing a degree from Central Piedmont Community College.
“It gives me that sense of home, that sense of pride, and that sense of comfort because I'm able to have stable housing and live my own life,” Peeler said.
Next door to where Peeler lives is a pink house that stands out in the neighborhood. Greg Jarrell and Helms Jarrell live there. They manage several properties near where they live, on the corner of Parkway Avenue and Tuckaseegee Road. Greg Jarrell said two properties were donated to QC Family Tree and others were purchased.
“QC Family Tree owns and rents at very low rates, seven units of housing, so five apartments, two single-family houses that we rent at about $500 a month,” Jarrell said. “For families who have faced displacement within this neighborhood through eviction, through rising rents.”
In one of the homes lives Shamaiye Haynes, who used to live in the Hoskins neighborhood in northwest Charlotte.
“I was in a bit of a housing crisis, like many other people here in Charlotte,” Haynes said. “During the pandemic, the place where I was living declined in quality, and we were looking for a different place but faced so many challenges.”
Haynes now lives in a three-bedroom home with her husband and two children and has lived there for almost two years. Before doing so, she used to work in corporate America and is heavily involved in the community. At first, she was reluctant to seek help with her situation.
“I stopped being ashamed and embarrassed about what my situation actually was,” Haynes said. “And I started to reach out to the different connections in the community.”
Haynes is now the co-director of QC Family Tree. She helps coordinate the organization's day-to-day operations and directs a program called “She Speaks,” which works to empower women.
Up the street from Haynes and past Iglesia de Dios Peniel church are the apartments owned by QC Family Tree. Stephanie Ford lives in one of them. Ford said she faced similar challenges with finding affordable housing.
She said the home where she lived was in poor condition and included mold, which caused concerns for her family. These problems resulted in Ford spending about six months raising her kids in a hotel.
“It was different because we had to buy things to cook with. I had to make adjustments with the school for transportation ... for my children,” Ford said. “I had to learn the new bus route to my job and from my job, because I didn't have a car at that time.”
Ford has lived in the QC Family Tree apartment for about eight years. She said she is content with her temporary place but has her mind set on a place she can own with more room.
“I have a place that is affordable, but I'm still in need of this space,” Ford said. “And just wanting a house, period.”
QC Family Tree supports homeownership by connecting residents with the West Side Community Land Trust to purchase homes. Currently, the organization is helping one QC Family Tree resident turn the aspiration of homeownership into reality.