By Nikki McLaurin, Harrelson Center’s Housing Navigator
The Harrelson Center’s Housing Navigation program is a 90-day case management homelessness prevention program designed to support high risk individuals or families who are just one unforeseen circumstance away from losing their housing. The program emerged from trends, insights, and data from our Help Hub, which provides short-term emergency financial assistance to help neighbors meet urgent expenses and avoid utility disconnection or housing eviction.
The Housing Navigation program began in May 2025. In our first year, we prevented 16 evictions, identified 27 more affordable housing units for clients struggling to pay rent, stabilized another 19 households on the verge of eviction, and prevented 3 foreclosures. These may seem like small numbers, but they represent a huge impact on the lives of those individuals and families who were able to stay housed.
These first-year numbers also demonstrate the very real impact housing navigation can have on our region’s broader housing crisis, but there is still much work to do. In 2025, New Hanover County ranked 36th out of the 100 counties in North Carolina for number of evictions. In 2026, New Hanover County is now ranked 21st for evictions in North Carolina. That is not an inconsequential jump, and it highlights the need for homelessness prevention services and funding in our community.
Getting to know the people who seek housing navigation services
Our clients typically need assistance catching up on rent to avoid eviction, or they need assistance finding more affordable housing, as they can no longer afford their current rent but cannot afford to move. Just consider the built-in costs associated with moving: first month’s rent, security deposits, utility deposits, application fees, administration fees, pet fees and deposits, technology fees, pest control fees, and package delivery fees. To say nothing of actual moving costs. It all adds up quickly and keeps people from seeking more affordable housing.
Someone recently asked what surprised me most in my first year working as the Housing Navigation Manager at the Harrelson Center. There have been many surprises, some wonderful and some heartbreaking, but undoubtedly what has surprised me the most is the depth and breadth of poverty in our community, the lack of conversation in the public sphere about that poverty, and the daily struggle faced by so many New Hanover County residents, young, old, and middle-aged, to stay employed, healthy, and housed.
Employment challenges I see with clients are the same as those reported nationally: low and stagnant wages, or a raise that rising prices negates; businesses preferring to hire new part-time employees instead of bumping current employees to full-time status which denies current part time employees the hours they want and need; work hours being cut in retaliation if employees take a sick day, even though that sick day is unpaid and people, or their children, do get sick. In response to these and other circumstances, clients who own cars (many do not) are adding gig work to pay the bills. So instead of one full-time job, many clients have a part-time job and gig work with Uber, DoorDash, and/or Instacart to pay the rising costs of rent and utilities.
Housing and health are inextricably linked
Added to the above challenges are those of health, healthcare, and health-related expenses. These include rising health insurance costs, limited healthcare providers willing to accept Medicaid, and dental care being prohibitively expensive with limited dental providers willing to accept Medicaid. Further, because clients are living with financial instability, they experience daily worry and stress as they struggle to make enough money to support themselves and their children. They may be living in unsafe environments or in rundown properties which also contributes to poor health outcomes. Living in a state of constant stress contributes to chronic disease and deterioration of both physical and mental health. This is why housing, along with food, safety, transportation and the like, are recognized as the “social determinants of health.”
A common scenario occurs when employment and healthcare deficiencies collide, creating unmanageable outcomes. Clients who have the flu or who need a surgical procedure need to take time off from work, but with no paid sick leave there is no support system in place to allow for recovery time. Because wages are low and expenses are high, clients are compelled to return to work unwell and unhealed, exacerbating existing medical conditions. If clients take the recovery time they need, they risk getting fired for missing work, and will struggle to pay their bills because of lost income.
One week of lost wages due to a health issue requiring rest, surgery, or both, can be the difference between sustaining housing or facing eviction. Even if the rent can be paid, it will likely be paid late, so there is a late fee added when the tenant is already struggling to catch up. The domino effect of lost wages plus a 5 percent late fee leads to other bills being paid late, bringing more late fees and more credit dings.
Credit dings are their own barrier to housing stability. They lead to higher deposits on utilities and housing, as well as higher car insurance rates, leaving less available for rent. People caught in this cycle often take on gig work and have no down time, creating more stress and more health issues that lead to more expenses. Then, when it all becomes too much to handle, they face eviction. One week of lost wages for seeking healthcare can lead to an eviction that is on one’s record in North Carolina forever, which creates a huge barrier for finding new housing thereafter.
One more thought about credit reports: I’ve seen this happen with my own clients, and I’ve heard it happens more often that it should: lower credit scores can also lead to fewer job opportunities. Employers may extend a job offer but after a credit check that shows less-than timely payments, they may rescind that offer—even for jobs that have nothing to do with finance. It’s heartbreaking. Once a credit score is compromised, it compromises everything else.
What New Hanover County Housing Data Tells Us
County profiles are published yearly for all 100 counties in North Carolina by the NC Housing Coalition. These profiles include pertinent data about housing costs, eviction rates, and wages needed to afford housing in each county.
New Hanover County data shows the following changes from 2025 to 2026:
● #36 in evictions in 2025, with 3,135 households facing eviction
● #21 in evictions in 2026, with 4,055 households facing eviction
● $1580/month average rent of moderately priced 2-bedroom unit 2025
● $1659/month average rent of moderately priced 2-bedroom unit 2026
● $30.38/hour wage needed in 2025 to afford rent for 2-bedroom unit
● $31.90/hour wage needed in 2026 to afford rent for 2-bedroom unit
● 54% of renters struggling to afford rent in 2025
● 55% of renters struggling to afford rent in 2026
Affordable housing is a misnomer if workers can’t pay their rent. Building more affordable and workforce housing is important, but shining a light on the realities of housing in New Hanover County is imperative to the path forward. If evictions are increasing, rents are increasing, and the number of renters struggling to afford their rent is increasing, that data should inform local housing policy and solutions.
The Way Forward
The Harrelson Center’s Housing Navigation Program has been working to keep residents housed and the success is impressive. But our capacity is nowhere near the overwhelming need.
Nonprofits provide the critical services and financial support for residents who are working in our hospitals, caretaking our loved ones, teaching our children, providing our transportation, delivering our groceries, painting our homes, cleaning our houses and businesses, cooking in our restaurants, and providing our childcare. There is much more work to do to overcome the gap between what people earn and where they can live.
The nonprofit sector in New Hanover County provides a vital infrastructure that is doing the day-to-day work to help residents stay employed, healthy, housed, and safe. They help move the needle in a positive direction, but many have long waitlists for services, or funding that has run out or been eliminated, or they didn’t get the grant they needed to do the work in the first place. These organizations need big, bold support, together with real systemic reform, to create a community that stabilizes housing for all.
But all of us must also work to understand the daily challenges so many of our neighbors face and recognize why they are truly just one crisis away from losing their housing.
