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'It's heartless': Residents concerned after 25 percent rent increase at senior apartment

By Mark Barber
By Mark Barber

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Through tears, 67-year-old Barry Frazier says that instead of enjoying retirement, he’s searching for a job.

He says the new rent increases at the Terrace View Senior Apartments will eat up 60 percent of his Social Security check.

[Affordable housing crisis: How you can help]

"I ain’t got no choice. I’ve got to find some additional income,” Frazier said.

Some of the residents are seeking rent increase as much as 25 percent.

Resident Cora Little showed Channel 9 her bill which is jumping from $500 to $625.

[READ MORE: Priced out of Charlotte: Continuing to address the affordable housing crisis]

“It’s heartless,” Little said. “We have to have money for clothes. We have to have money for food.”

Channel 9 took the residents’ concerns to the property manager.

Mark Walters, of MW Properties, said the owner of the property lives in Canada and plans to start updating the units.

“It’s a strong concern, but what do you do?,” Walters said. “I can’t keep the owner from raising the rent to cover the mortgage.”

In the past, Walters helped house homeless people and other vulnerable families through a nonprofit he started in Gaston County.

He says he also cares about the well-being of the families who live in Terrace View but he says the circumstances make it a difficult situation.

The city of Charlotte helped build the duplexes, so one of the requirements the owner agreed to when the community opened was keeping the rent low for 10 years.

That agreement ended in 2015.

Walters said he managed to convince the owner to keep rent low as possible for as long as he could.

"Trying to get them not to raise them all at one time, or bring them up, is a hard thing to do, but at least we got them to do that much,” Walters said.

Residents said they are grateful for the help, but they'll need even more or they could lose their homes.

"Without some help, we can’t survive and we have absolutely nowhere else to go,” Frazier said.

Frazier said he looked for other apartments, but the waiting lists all had yearlong waits.

Channel 9 is told helping give the renters new subsidies is a challenge because housing subsidies are often limited to people who have been homeless or have severe mental health needs.

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