Local

Firm denies Brookhill neighborhood’s funding request for affordable housing project

CHARLOTTE — There was a major setback for one of Charlotte’s boldest proposals for affordable housing. LISC, the firm that handles the city of Charlotte’s privately raised money for affordable housing, denied Brookhill’s proposal for funding. The city of Charlotte previously rejected the project’s request for Housing Trust Fund dollars.

Click here to read a letter from Brookhill in response to the rejection.

Brookhill is trying to close a $13 million gap. The goal is to build new affordable housing at a South End property for the current residents, as well as market-rate units. The current homes on the site will be demolished. It is a big proposal that was introduced to much fanfare. Despite that, the lack of funding from the city puts its future in question.

“It isn’t a matter of whether Brookhill will be developed, the question is who will live there when it is developed,” said Ray McKinnon, president of the South Tryon Community Development Corp. “We will fight until the last day to ensure our neighbors who live there now will be able to continue to live there. All we are asking is for the mayor and city council to fight with us.”

[Brookhill excluded from Charlotte Housing Trust Fund projects]

In a statement, city of Charlotte officials said they are seeing many competitive applications for funding, and they can’t recommend this project for financing at this time. McKinnon is vowing to keep fighting for the project.

Statement from Housing and Neighborhood Services: Based on subsequent review of information provided from the Brookhill Development Team, funding is not recommended for the Brookhill proposal.  Both LISC (CHOIF) and the City of Charlotte are seeing many competitive applications, and we regret that we cannot recommend this request for financing, based on the information provided to us. While we are unable to fund this project based on the current proposal, in this current round of financing, we hope to work with the developer in the future. We remain a committed partner in providing high quality, long-term affordable housing throughout our community.