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Why Are There Stark Wealth Disparities in a City Known for Money?

September 1, 2022

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Charlotte, North Carolina – the largest and most racially diverse city in the state – is considered by many as the financial capital of the South because of its many banking institutions. Charlotte is home to the second-largest financial district in the United States, smaller than only New York City; banks in the ‘Queen City’ held more than $2.3 trillion in assets in 2021. Charlotte is also home to a blossoming technology industry, boasting the 4th-largest population growth by millennials among top tech markets. Yet stark economic disparities also exist.

Despite the city’s vast amount of wealth, more than 15% of Charlotte residents live below the poverty line, including 1 in 5 children in Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte. Most of those children living under the poverty line are children of color: 35.7% of all Hispanic children, 30.7% of all Black children and 19.7% of Asian children in the county fall below the poverty line, compared to just 4.7% of White children according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2013 American Community Survey. These racial and economic inequalities within Charlotte have led it to be referred to as a “tale of two cities.”

Addressing Charlotte’s Wealth Inequality

Organizations across Charlotte are addressing these imbalances, like the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, which seeks to create long-term economic growth within the city. Led by Janet LaBar, the organization partners with the Southern Communities Initiative – an economic development partnership created by Robert F. Smith, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. The Southern Communities Initiative brings together six major Southern cities to expand access to economic opportunities, addressing areas like minority entrepreneurship, access to capital, education and digital access in communities of color.

On minority entrepreneurship, Charlotte Regional Business Alliance plans to advise and mentor about 200 minority business enterprises (MBEs) on capital and loan access, helping them scale up from less than $10 million in capital to over $50 million. They also seek to support supplier diversity by increasing MBE spending in the Charlotte region by 5-10%. Together, these measures are estimated to increase economic value in Charlotte MBEs by a factor of three, creating roughly 13,000 jobs and boosting wealth in Charlotte’s Black community by around $2 billion.

In addition, Charlotte Regional Business Alliance seeks to increase access to capital in Charlotte communities of color by investing $30 million over five years to help community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and minority depository institutions (MDIs) upgrade their systems and technology, hire and train more frontline lending staff and increase their capacity to perform outreach efforts across the city. These measures are estimated to increase loans to around 30,000 MBEs by $330 million.

The organization seeks to lower the financial burden on Black students, increase the number of Black graduates and increase Black workforce and executive representation. It does so by funding Student Freedom Initiative’s Handling Everyday Life Problems for Students (HELPS) program to support HBCU students with emergency expenses, as well as monitor executive representation and produce plans to increase diversity within executive positions. The organization also seeks to increase accessibility and affordability of high-speed internet by increasing door-to-door outreach in hopes of reaching around 35,000 homes currently without high-speed connection.

Learn more about the Southern Communities Initiative and other initiative partners throughout the south, including Houston, Texas and Memphis, Tennessee.