WILMINGTON — “We aren’t talking enough about poverty,” Nikki McLaurin said at the Harrelson Center last week, specifically discussing people on the brink of homelessness.
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The manager for Harrelson Center’s new Housing Navigation Program, McLaurin helps people who are struggling financially to keep a roof over their heads. The initiative launched in the spring, with its first batch of 10 people vulnerable to losing their housing successfully rolling off the 90-day program last week.
Housing Navigation is set up as an offshoot to Harrelson Center’s Help Hub. Open for a decade, Help Hub connects people to emergency services and financial help, such as for transportation needs or healthcare. Just last year, 1,400 households came through with volunteers and staff investing around $268,000 — or $183 per household.
“But what we saw was housing remained a core issue,” Harrelson Center Executive Director Meade Van Pelt told Port City Daily.
Harrelson Center is located at 20 N. 4th St. and consists of 20 or so organizations with offices situated there, such as Cape Fear Collective, Cape Fear Guardian Ad Litem, and Cape Fear HealthNet, among others. It also works with 20 off-campus nonprofit agencies.
“This isn’t about emergency housing,” Van Pelt clarified of Housing Navigation — “it’s to keep people in their homes.”
The program’s goal is to prevent homelessness rather than adding to the numbers. According to the Point-in-Time count for the tri-county area (Brunswick, New Hanover, and Pender counties), in January 2025 it found 506 homeless individuals, a decrease from 593 in 2024. Of the 506 people, 47% were sheltered and 53% were unsheltered.
While programs locally often focus on how to help those already unhoused, McLaurin and Van Pelt wanted to help people who have a place to live, but are barely managing — living paycheck to paycheck, usually with little-to-no savings.
“And it’s not just low-income people,” McLaurin said. “We are working with people who are housed, employed and want to stay that way.”
Having earned her federal housing counselor certification in fall 2024, McLaurin came from Church World Services as a housing specialist who helped legal refugees resettle and find a place to live locally. However, due to the federal funding cuts, she was furloughed in the winter.
She met Liz Carbone through local housing work — Carbone formerly was the strategic planning chair of Cape Fear Housing Coalition and has since started Home Team Consulting. McLaurin learned about Housing Navigation that Van Pelt was launching through Carbone, who was hired as a consultant to help flesh out the program and see where Harrelson Center could fill in the gaps of local needs.
Van Pelt said there are so many levels of homelessness to consider, whether it’s chronic or emergency (i.e. such as escaping domestic violence), but what she was seeing up close and personal was more people at-risk of becoming homeless through the Help Hub. More so, she recognized people oftentimes conflated who is actually at-risk, with the presumption being it’s someone without a job.
“But we are actually seeing people who are working one, two, three jobs,” Van Pelt said. “And, still — particularly if you’re a single parent or a single person — are struggling to actually make ends meet.”
With a small state grant — enough to cover a three-year salary for McLaurin — and some private fundraising on the part of Harrelson Center, Housing Navigation launched in late spring. Many of the clients it has served have fallen behind on rent or mortgage because of an unexpected life event, such as a costly car repair or sudden medical bills.
“Because they’re just not making enough money — housing has gone up and wages have not,” Van Pelt said. “Housing is the most important issue and it affects everything we are doing, it affects every nonprofit, every client we serve, it affects the whole community. … So many people are in a cycle of living unaffordably because they’re so cost-burdened by their housing.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines “cost burdened” households as anyone spending 30% or more of their income on housing. Van Pelt surmised 30% is the minimum to expect now — noting 50% or more is becoming common.
To qualify for the program, someone must:
- Be a New Hanover County resident
- Have a monthly income of some sort, even if it’s disability or social security
- Not have been part of the federal Housing Opportunity Program
- Be currently housed
It’s a 90-day case management program, with McLaurin working one-on-one with the applicant weekly to make sure they meet all metrics and can contribute to their own success story. That means, while Housing Navigation may provide funding for back rent or a late utility bill that’s escalating — even cover a first month’s rent and deposit, in the event someone has to move into something more affordable — the person participating in the program also has to contribute monetarily.
“We want to put some of the responsibility on them, too,” McLaurin said, explaining she assesses a client’s budget, including expenses and receivables throughout the three months.
She often finds herself helping with credit cleanup as well. This is an important factor, Van Pelt explained, because someone with poor credit may face double the price for a security deposit.
McLaurin can manage around 25 clients at a time. Having just finished her first 90-day batch, she helped 10 people stay in their homes. Most were renters, though McLaurin said two homeowners were also helped, both of whom inherited properties downtown.
“Both were minority women, one’s over 80 years old and one’s a young mother,” Van Pelt detailed. “They were behind on their mortgage, and we were able to get them stabilized and they’re still in those homes. And that’s actually creating generational wealth, especially for the young mother.”
Of the renters, five remained in their current housing and the others were assisted into finding new affordable housing.
McLaurin has secured partnerships with income-based housing providers community-wide. Still, she thinks the prices to live in Wilmington — even with developments adjusting rents accordingly with AMI numbers — aren’t sustainable.
“My main challenges are cost of housing — even affordable housing. I get emotional talking about it,” McLaurin said through tears. “It’s a challenge — housing here in New Hanover County. It’s been eye-opening for me to see how people are living. … I feel like this community needs a different direction because so many people are slipping through the cracks — living in their cars, in their places of work.”
McLaurin added the status quo around housing conversations needs to change, particularly in one of the richest counties in the state. She said she would like to see “true” affordable options, eschewing it is not always a one-bedroom for $1,000.
“Some of my clients are on a $700 fixed income; those people deserve housing, too,” McLaurin said. “So who is challenging it and changing it? Let’s think of new ideas, let’s be progressive. Let developers offer up some incentives instead of vice-versa because I do think people care what the morality around a company is. And I think it’s important to give back to the community you’re profiting from.”
Messaging about the Navigation Housing program has spread primarily via word-of-mouth, with McLaurin connecting with clients daily through Help Hub. She also receives referrals from the Department of Health and Human Services, Novant and community partners. So far, “demand is outweighing” capacity, with upward of a dozen voicemails coming in daily with inquiries.
“And some people just call for referrals,” she clarified. “Because, no matter what, this is about wraparound services. I have sent people to Engine Angels who have car repair needs and also to Harrelson Center partners, like Catholic Charities. I had a client come to me who had a hole in her roof, and she was falling behind on rent and had black mold growing in her house. She was a mom with kids but Catholic Charities, who take care of disaster needs, were able to do that roof repair for her and keep her in her house.”
Van Pelt said the funding received for the Housing Navigation program so far is enough to pilot it for three years, yet she hopes it will be successful enough to continue forward. As more success stories and data become available to show it works, she said they plan to apply for grants, including with The Endowment.
Reach journalist Shea Carver at shea@localdailymedia.com.
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