North Carolina’s cheapest rental homes are disappearing faster than the people who need them most can grab hold. A new national study finds the state now has just 38 affordable and available rentals for every 100 extremely low-income households, down from 41 the year before.
That slide translates into hundreds of thousands of people stuck choosing which basic need to pay for each month. Rent, or groceries. Rent, or the doctor. Rent, or the power bill.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's The Gap state profile for North Carolina, the state has 348,518 extremely low-income renter households and only 133,436 rental homes that are both affordable and available to them. That leaves a deficit of roughly 215,082 units.
The same profile shows the ratio of affordable homes per 100 extremely low-income households fell from 41 to 38 in just one year, based on American Community Survey data. In other words, the hole that the lowest-income renters are trying to climb out of is getting deeper.
As reported by WFAE, 76% of extremely low-income renter households in North Carolina are severely cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than half their income on housing and utilities. The outlet notes the study finds many of those renters are cutting back on food, healthcare and other essentials just to keep a roof overhead.
Where the Shortage Bites Hardest
The crunch is statewide, but Charlotte is one of the clearest pressure points. The North Carolina Housing Coalition reports the Charlotte metro has about 77,395 extremely low-income renter households and only about 31 affordable and available homes per 100 of those households.
The group points to similar shortages in Raleigh and the Virginia Beach-Norfolk region, a pattern that suggests local development is not producing nearly enough deeply affordable units even as markets add more market-rate apartments.
Statewide Gap and What Officials Are Doing
Zooming out, the numbers get even starker. A 2024 Housing Supply Gap Analysis commissioned by business groups estimated a 764,000-unit shortfall across North Carolina, with much of that gap concentrated in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, according to the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency.
The agency highlights several tools it is leaning on to blunt the problem: preserving existing subsidized properties, targeting subsidies to the deepest needs, and adjusting programs such as tax-credit allocations and gap financing to stretch limited dollars further.
At the national level, NLIHC's 2026 Gap report estimates a shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renters across the country. The organization is urging Congress to expand rental subsidies, strengthen programs that preserve affordable housing and fund emergency assistance to keep people from being evicted.
Advocates argue it will take a mix of federal money, state-level programs and local zoning changes to close a gap of this size. None of that happens overnight, and they warn that without steady investment the shortage will keep pushing the lowest-income households further into economic precarity.
For now, the latest Gap numbers draw a sharp line under what is already visible in communities across North Carolina: if the state wants its poorest residents to stay housed, it has a lot of ground to make up.
