On Charlotte’s west side, a two-day-a-week operation has quietly turned into a lifeline. Inside a modest office, Terica Carter and her Hajee House crew serve hot meals, hand out basic necessities and put overdose reversal medication directly into the hands of people most at risk. It is small-scale, deeply local work that steps into gaps public health data say are hitting Black and brown neighborhoods the hardest.
Inside Hajee House
When people walk into Hajee House, they leave with more than a full plate. Visitors are sent home with brown paper bags stocked with hygiene items and, crucially, four doses of naloxone, according to WSOC. Reporter Hunter Sáenz described a line stretching out the door, with volunteers serving chili and rice or chicken and biscuits to people who might otherwise miss a meal.
Carter told the station she named the program after her son, Tajahan, who died after taking a pill she says was laced with fentanyl. She also said Hajee House is the first Black-led harm reduction organization in Mecklenburg County. The work is not theoretical. One visitor told the reporter he used naloxone he got from Hajee House to revive someone who had stopped breathing.
Registered service and where to find help
Hajee House is listed on the state roster of syringe service programs with both a fixed site and mobile outreach, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The organization’s own website lays out daytime drop-in hours and a 24-hour safe-use hotline, and invites volunteers and donors to get involved.
That mix of official registration and on-the-ground neighborhood outreach allows volunteers to move naloxone, test strips and safer-use kits into communities that data show are losing residents at higher rates. See Hajee House for practical information.
The data behind the urgency
Mecklenburg County Public Health has reported roughly a 200% increase in overdose deaths among Black and Hispanic residents since 2019, and says more than 55% of nonfatal overdoses have occurred in Black and brown populations, according to a county release. The department also noted that, using settlement funding, public health officials and community partners distributed 16,968 doses of naloxone in 2024.
National reporting and health analysis point to the same fault lines. Coverage republished by MedicalXpress highlights how Black patients face disproportionate barriers to addiction treatment, obstacles that community-led programs like Hajee House are attempting to confront.
Outreach on the corridors hit hardest
Carter’s street team loads supplies into a car and heads into parts of town plenty of people avoid. WSOC followed along on runs to Sugar Creek Road, Brookshire Boulevard and Freedom Drive. Volunteers set up outside motels, hand out lunches and pass along safer-use materials.
“We operate with love,” one team member told the station. That mix of education, a quick conversation and a spray of Narcan has already translated into lives saved. Carter and other harm reduction workers argue that these face-to-face encounters are exactly what traditional responses have been missing.
Why it matters
Carter says Hajee House still needs supplies, volunteers and steady funding to keep up with demand. The organization’s website outlines ways to help and offers a 24-hour safe-use and overdose-prevention line for people in crisis. Mecklenburg County’s Overdose Data to Action page also explains how residents can request free naloxone and find training on how to respond when someone is overdosing.
For now, Hajee House is proof that small acts by neighbors, from a hot meal to a test strip to a few doses of naloxone, can buy critical time while the county works on a broader prevention and treatment system.
