Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

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Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!

Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
Please enter a valid email address
Please enter a valid zip code

Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!

Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
Please enter a valid email address
Please enter a valid zip code

Never Miss a Chance to Do the Most Good

Please enter your name, email and zip code below to sign up!

Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
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Help and Hope with Homelessness Image

Help and Hope with Homelessness

We Offer Hope & Refuge

The Salvation Army Center of Hope & Family Shelter programs are designed to provide emergency or transitional housing to families in need. Underlying this program is a motivation to identify the causes of homelessness and work to eliminate homelessness at its source.

Are you experiencing homelessness and don’t know where to turn? 

The Salvation Army Center of Hope is here to help. We are an emergency shelter for women, children and families that provides three daily meals, case management, intervention programs, health care, and access to resources for children and teens. The program is free and open to Mecklenburg County residents. 

How we help equip families

While at the Center of Hope, families and individuals participate in programs and workshops developed to promote self-sufficiency and personal development. Each resident is matched with an on-site caseworker and together they develop an extensive, goal-oriented program designed to identify and overcome the barriers to safe, permanent housing. 

After assessment hours, individuals and families experiencing homelessness should be directed to an emergency shelter:

  • Single Women and Families: Salvation Army Center of Hope, 704-348-2560, 534 Spratt Street
  • Single Adult Men: Roof Above (Men’s Shelter of Charlotte), 704-334-3187, 1210 North Tryon Street
  • People Seeking Domestic Violence Services or in imminent danger: Safe Alliance Domestic Violence Shelter, 704-944-0169 (location confidential)
  • Youth under the Age of 18: The Relatives, 704-501-8260 , 1100 East Boulevard

Charlotte-Mecklenburg now operates a Coordinated Assessment system

A Coordinated Assessment aims to connect individuals and families experiencing homelessness, or those at imminent risk, to an existing available shelter/housing resource in our community. Coordinated Assessment uses a specific definition of homelessness. A person experiencing homelessness is someone:

  • Living in a place not meant for human habitation, or
  • Living in emergency shelter (including domestic violence shelter), or
  • Living in transitional housing, or
  • Exiting an institution where they temporarily resided for up to 90 days (and were in a shelter or a place not meant for human habitation immediately prior to entering that institution), or
  • Likely to meet one of the above definitions within the next 72 hours.

*IF YOU NEED A COORDINATED ASSESSMENT, PLEASE CALL 704-284-9665*

What Coordinated Assessment IS:

  • A process that assesses persons who are presently experiencing homelessness or will be within 72 hours, for referral to a housing resource in the County that fits their need and situation.
  • A network of designated locations with staff that are trained to evaluate the person’s qualifications to enter the Coordinated Assessment process and to be referred to available housing options.
  • A proactive referral, if space is available. If space is not available, individuals may be put on a waiting list.

What Coordinated Assessment IS NOT:

  • A program
  • A guarantee of housing space
  • An application completion service
  • A housing clearinghouse

Center of Hope

When women and children have nowhere else to go, they can count on The Salvation Army Center of Hope. Located two miles north of Uptown Charlotte, the Center of Hope sleeps an average of 275 women and children every night. An active member of the Homeless Services Network, The Salvation Army is a leader in providing families with a successful way out of homelessness. Each program is graduated to step clients from the point of crisis to the point of resolution. These programs include emergency shelter, transitional housing, rapid rehousing, and shelter diversion.

There is no single portrait of homelessness. Sometimes families lose their homes because of money; women grab their children and run from abusive husbands; an illness strips a person of work; a layoff comes unannounced. In addition to basic needs, clients receive case management, intervention programs, health care, child care for young children, and guidance for school-age children and teens. Shelters are only a temporary solution. Homeless families need help getting back on their feet.

Booth Commons at Mulberry

A Salvation Army Family Community

The nearly 52,000-square-foot facilities has space to accommodate 100 families at a time. Each apartment-style unit is complete with a bathroom and kitchen for families to prepare their own meals. A range of services are available on-site including case management, a clothes closet and food pantry. An on-site Boys & Girls Club provides out-of-school programming for children. This newly acquired facility substantially increases the shelter bed capacity in our city and allows The Salvation Army to serve 50% more people than it did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most importantly, it allows more families experiencing homelessness to stay together while they get back on their feet., as we can now serve families with moms and dads or families with teenaged sons.

Supportive Housing Innovative Partnership (SHIP)

Our partnership with Inlivian (formerly Charlotte Housing Authority), providing 60 units at Hampton Creste Apartments in East Charlotte.

Families at the COH shelter can move into one of these apartments and have up to 5 years to increase their education, employment, income and savings. The goal is to give families enough time to earn a living wage so that they can sustain in housing on their own without returning to the shelter in the future. On average 85% of participants sustain in housing after program exit. Social workers provide on-site case management as well as special classes that focus on topics such as eviction prevention, workplace decorum and positive parenting.