Staff Report //October 16, 2020//
The Greenville Housing Fund and Greenville County Redevelopment Authority on Thursday presented to city and county councils a communitywide strategic plan for addressing city and county affordable housing needs.
In Greenville County, roughly 50,000 households pay more than 30% of their income toward housing, according to a news release.
In the fall of 2019, Thomas Miller & Associates began conducting stakeholder interviews, holding workshops and gathering data about the challenges of achieving affordable housing in the area and possible solutions to those problems to be compiled in a strategic plan for the city.
“Since 2018, GHF has supported more than 540 units of affordable and workforce housing through innovative public and private partnerships,” Bryan Brown, CEO of the Greenville Housing Fund, said in the release. “The release of this plan builds on that success and positions our community to address the crisis of housing affordability.”
The study discovered that throughout the county:
“The need for affordable housing options in our community is an essential part of our growth strategy,” John Castile, executive director of the redevelopment authority, said in the news release. “The worldwide pandemic disproportionally impacts those who earn less than the county’s median household income. Now more than ever, affordable housing options for our current and future residents must remain a high priority.”
Since 1974, the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority has provided thousands of affordable homes, grants and low interest loans to residents, according to the release.
The report also outlined the following objective to address these barriers:
"With the same spirit of collaboration that has served this community so well, we look forward to expanding our efforts to address Greenville’s affordable housing needs by working with our public and private partners to leverage every possible resource,” Mayor Knox White said in the release. “This serves as an affirmation to the public of our commitment to ensuring the availability of safe, quality affordable housing now and for generations to come.”
The two presenting groups also called for the creation of a working group including both city and county officials to collaborate with the coalition on implementing these strategies.
“I’m more optimistic than ever about the future of Greenville County,” Butch Kirven, County Council chairman, said in the release. “Ensuring that good quality housing is attainable to more people is vital to a thriving and healthy community for all. We can do that by thoughtfully applying the unique tools and capabilities of both the private and the public sectors.”
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