CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Martha Washington Apartments in Elizabeth are going to be cleared out to make way for more than 120 luxury townhomes. There are currently 50 units there. They were affordable and are now abandoned with the exception of one person still living here.
Nick Bloomberg walked out of his small unit in the complex.
"I think there was a tipping point around 2015," he said, referring to the amount of development in Charlotte.
He watched many of his neighbors, one by one, move from their homes close to uptown.
"For the places to be closing down as quickly as they did, I think it was pretty rough on quite a few tenants," Bloomberg said.
The Martha Washington Apartments, where Bloomberg pays $620 a month for a small unit, will be the next affordable housing option near uptown to be redeveloped.
Bloomberg said the apartment was perfect for him.
"I'm an artist. This place is also my studio," he said.
He had a difficult time last year, but it got worse when his apartment complex started shutting down.
"When I'm doing stuff in the arts, I'm walking a tightrope, already, in life," he said.
City leaders told Channel 9 that there's not much they can do about what the builder, Pulte Homes, plans to do at the site off Seventh Street on Kenmore Avenue. The company doesn't need to request rezoning to build 124 townhomes there.
"We don't have much leverage," City Councilman Larken Egleston said.
Several neighbors spoke to Channel 9 who had concerns about the number of new townhomes, the traffic and losing trees.
Many were also compassionate about the loss of affordable housing.
Egleston said the city is still trying to get ahead of development.
"We're going to look for opportunities that exist like this before it's too late," Egleston said.
Bloomberg hopes they can do something about it.
"The support here isn't here," Bloomberg said.
The Elizabeth community will meet with Pulte Homes Thursday night to hear more about the project and provide feedback.
The meeting is at St. John's Baptist Church at the corner of Fifth and Hawthorne streets from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
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