Yesterday in local government: gun violence awareness and youth homelessness

Organizations helping homeless youths may request to participate in a funding competition to receive money from a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

Charlotte’s Continuum of Care‘s Youth Action Board will manage the funding competition, officials said at yesterday’s Board of County Commissioners meeting.
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County Manager Dena Diorio said Mecklenburg is in the process of buying a hotel building near Arrowood Road to provide affordable housing.

The money would come from federal Covid-19 relief funding.

Diorio said the building could be partially open by summertime.
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The board passed a resolution declaring June as Gun Violence Awareness Month.

The proclamation states that North Carolina is ranked 23rd among the states in gun-related deaths.

Sylvia Smith spoke at the meeting. Her son, Samuel Harrison Stitt, was fatally shot in 2019.

“I am so proud of Mecklenburg County in terms of addressing [gun violence] with the proclamation,” she said. “I want to be further proud of Mecklenburg County as you also put action behind the idea of addressing gun violence.”

You can see the meeting in its entirety here. 

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