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CHARLOTTE -- The Charlotte City Council decided to add $5 million for a bond on affordable housing to the annual straw vote. If approved, a total of $15 million could be spent towards affordable housing. Members vote on this proposal, as well as several funding ideas, before approving their budget June 7.

Homeless advocates said that's only half of what they need.

Wendell Parham has a goal of one day becoming a designer, but first he needs to find the road home. “I lost my apartment first and then I lost my job,” Parham said. “I came to Charlotte to start over.”

Parham is part of a homeless advocacy group called Homeless Helping Homeless that is pushing for a larger affordable housing bond for the city of Charlotte. They are hoping for November's affordable housing bond referendum to be set at $30 million.
“In anybody's world, that's a lot of money,” said Dale Mullenix, the executive director of the Urban Ministries Center. “So it's going to take some courage, some leadership and some creativity.

That money is an investment in people like Parham who felt people demeaned him on the streets. “If they see you with additional bags, they identify you as homeless,” said Parham. “They think you should just disappear.”

Parham said he won't disappear but he needs help from the city to find a home.

The homeless advocacy groups said they appreciated the additional $5 million, but they will continue to campaign to get $30 million for affordable housing.