The Knight Foundation has awarded West Side Community Land Trust a $600,000 grant to continue its work in developing affordable housing.
The grant will help fund the Nathanael Carr Senior Community, a 4.5 acre land site that will house 120 units of affordable, permanent living.
Operational expenses and program enhancements, including preparing residents to be homebuyers, are a few expenses the grant will cover.
A developer was looking to acquire the land until neighbors reached out to West Side Community Land Trust to purchase the land that will soon house the non-profit’s largest project to date.
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“With our new investment, the Land Trust will continue to to engage Charlotteans in the process of building a more livable, inclusive and successful Historic West End,” Charles Thomas, director of the Knight Foundation in Charlotte said in a statement.
West Side Community Land Trust was founded in 2017 by community members who wanted to combat gentrification and displacement.
The following year, the Knight Foundation made its first investment into the non-profit organization.
“A lot of times people don’t see the vision” Charis Blackmon, executive director of the West Side Community Land Trust, told QCity Metro.
“The Knight Foundation bought into it.”