
At Sarah Stevenson’s Tuesday Forum, Charlotte’s Mayor’s Race Turns on Housing, Transit, Mental Health
What happened
The Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Forum hosted a mayoral conversation that doubled as a civics class. Mayor Vi Lyles and Libertarian challenger Rob Yates took questions for more than an hour on housing, public safety, transit, youth programs, small business rules, and mental health. The room pressed for specifics. So did the livestream.
Lyles kept the frame tight: housing, jobs, and mobility. Yates argued for voting reform, deregulation, community policing, and against the proposed transportation sales tax. The audience surfaced the hardest facts of the morning: thousands of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students are experiencing homelessness, and families are sleeping in parking lots while school buses do curbside pickups.
For a deeper primer on the race and where the candidates stand, see our election hub: The Charlotte Mercury’s Complete 2025 Mayoral Voting Guide, Charlotte Mayoral Candidates Present Diverging Plans for Housing, Transit, and Public Safety, and our transit explainers: Mecklenburg’s One-Cent Transit Tax Heads to November Ballot—Here’s What the Fine Print Really Says, plus the technical breakdowns here: Mecklenburg’s 1 % Transportation Sales Tax: Full Breakdown of Costs, Projects, and Control, Charlotte’s 1 % Transit Tax: What It Does, What It Costs, Who Runs It and Where City Council Candidates Stand, and The Penny That Could Redraw Mecklenburg.
The through-lines
Lyles: housing first, then jobs, then mobility
Lyles returned to a simple triad. “We ought to always think about housing, especially now the unhoused. We need to think about jobs… and the ability to move around the city.” She traced Charlotte’s affordable housing bond history, noting a first bond at “$15” then $50 million and now $100 million, and pledged to keep backing the Housing Trust Fund. She said Roof Above needs roughly 300 more beds and called the jail “the biggest mental-health hospital we have,” describing that as unacceptable and pointing to county-city coordination on treatment capacity.
On transit, Lyles made an equity argument: “Most of the people that ride public transit are people that look like me. And they have no cars.” She tied the mobility plan to job access and on-time arrival, and referenced displacement planning that draws on the city’s NEST Commission recommendations.
Hiring a new CMPD chief is in interviews now, she said, with an announcement expected “in the next several weeks.” She cited internal feedback favoring a leader who already knows Charlotte.
Yates: voting reform, policing, build more, reject the tax
Yates opened with a Libertarian shorthand: “Don’t hurt people. Don’t take their stuff. Equal rights for everyone.” He wants Charlotte to pilot preference voting, arguing it would center ideas over parties. On public safety, he backed community policing with officers assigned long-term to places, paid well, and judged on safety rather than arrest statistics. He criticized spending on an armored vehicle purchase and called press events that sensationalize crime counterproductive.
On housing, he offered a blunt supply case: “We gotta build. More supply lowers prices.” He argued the city’s centralized approvals have become a hurdle and said occupational licensing and zoning rules block small-business formation, using barber licensing as his example. On transit, he opposed the transportation sales tax, calling the one-percentage-point increase a 14 percent hike and estimating $240 per person a year, saying the burden falls hardest during inflation.
The room’s hardest question
Freedom Fight Missionaries’ Kenny Robinson asked what the city will do for the 5,680 CMS students experiencing homelessness, including the anecdote of a school bus picking up kids from a parking lot where their family sleeps. Both candidates acknowledged the scale. Lyles emphasized county-city collaboration and near-term basics such as meals and safe space. Yates connected homelessness to the cost of shelter and work access, and returned to his “build more housing, remove barriers to jobs” formula.
Youth, mental health, and alternatives to policing
The forum pressed for after-school and weekend access, better transportation to programs, and mental-health responses that do not begin with a badge. Lyles described a CARE team approach and said the city has funded a psychiatric clinician working uptown in coordination with CMPD. Yates endorsed routing mental-health calls to the right responders and argued community policing creates the context to do that without split-second escalation.
Policy edges and open questions
- Transit sales tax: A defining split. Lyles spoke to equity and mobility outcomes; Yates to cost and governance. For context, read our explainers: Mecklenburg’s One-Cent Transit Tax Heads to November Ballot—Here’s What the Fine Print Really Says and the fuller bill analysis in Mecklenburg’s 1 % Transportation Sales Tax: Full Breakdown of Costs, Projects, and Control.
- Displacement: Lyles cited NEST planning; expect more scrutiny as corridor projects advance.
- CMPD chief: Internal hire favored by officers, according to Lyles. Watch our politics desk for the announcement.
- Homeless services capacity: Roof Above bed need; county-city alignment; faith partners’ winter role; who pays for what.
- Licensing and zoning: If council revisits barbershop and home-business rules, it will become a cross-committee fight that touches public health, land use, and equity.
For district and at-large races shaping the council that will govern these issues, see: Charlotte 2025 City Council Candidate Guide — District-by-District Profiles, Charlotte City Council At-Large Candidates 2025, and our at-large field analysis 2025 Charlotte City Council At-Large Candidates: Full Field Breakdown.
Quotes worth saving
- Lyles on priorities: “Housing, jobs, and the ability to move around the city.”
- Lyles on mental health: “The jail is the biggest mental-health hospital we have.”
- Lyles on transit and equity: “Most of the people that ride public transit are people that look like me.”
- Yates on philosophy: “Don’t hurt people. Don’t take their stuff. Equal rights for everyone.”
- Yates on building: “We gotta build.”
- Yates on the tax: “A one-point increase is a 14 percent sales-tax hike… about $240 a person.”
What’s next
The forum announced next week’s focus will be the transit tax. Do your homework. We filed it for you here: Mecklenburg’s One-Cent Transit Tax Heads to November Ballot—Here’s What the Fine Print Really Says and here: Mecklenburg’s 1 % Transportation Sales Tax: Full Breakdown of Costs, Projects, and Control. For the wider 2025 field, our election landing page is live: Poll Dance 2025.
Links to our ongoing mayoral coverage
- The Charlotte Mercury’s Complete 2025 Mayoral Voting Guide
- Charlotte Mayoral Candidates Present Diverging Plans for Housing, Transit, and Public Safety
- Charlotte Mayoral Primary 2025: Everything You Need to Know (and Why You Should Vote)
About the Author
I’m Jack Beckett, senior writer at The Charlotte Mercury, where the coffee is strong enough to hold a lede and short enough to make deadline. Find our latest reporting on The Charlotte Mercury, scan the news desk at News, and dive into the politics file at Politics. Our special 2025 election coverage is here: Poll Dance 2025. You can always message us on X, Twitter, or as we call it Twix at x.com/queencityexp.
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This article, “At Sarah Stevenson’s Tuesday Forum, Charlotte’s Mayor’s Race Turns on Housing, Transit, Mental Health,” by Jack Beckett is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.
“At Sarah Stevenson’s Tuesday Forum, Charlotte’s Mayor’s Race Turns on Housing, Transit, Mental Health”
by Jack Beckett, The Charlotte Mercury (CC BY-ND 4.0)