During our fall 2017 listening process, CAJM members expressed despair about the lack of affordable housing in our community. Charleston area housing costs have skyrocketed. 211,000 area residents spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, indicating a housing affordability problem. Rental costs increased twice as much as wages from 2011 to 2016. North Charleston’s 2016 eviction rate was 16.5 percent, the highest of any large city in the nation, with 10 households evicted every day.
Over 1600 people showed up for our April 2018 Nehemiah Action Assembly. There, we asked elected officials to convene a Regional Housing Coalition within 75 days, and to commit to identifying permanent sources of funding from local governments totaling at least $15 million, to provide permanent funds for a Regional Housing Trust Fund. The Housing Trust Fund attracts public and private funds from a variety of sources that would not be available without the trust fund; this is referred to as leveraging. A housing trust fund in Louisville, for example, leveraged annual funds of $9.7 million into a total of $150 million.
All the elected officials who attended our action, representing all four governing bodies in our region, agreed to support the Housing Action Plan. The next day, the Post and Courier’s lead editorial, entitled, “Regional solutions to housing crisis needed,” endorsed our goal of “dramatically increasing the supply of affordable housing units in the area.”
Since 2018, CAJM has publicly advocated for an affordable housing trust fund. In meetings with elected officials – which included our two Regional Housing Coalition Meetings – we’ve advocated for County Council to create a fund that would set aside money to build reasonably-priced housing units. We’ve set up research visits with the S.C. Community Loan Fund, who successfully established a housing initiative in Greenville. The S.C. Loan Fund agreed to work with Charleston County to establish a similar endeavor in the Lowcountry.
Finally, during our 2024 Nehemiah Action, we celebrated Charleston County Council’s February 2024 decision to create a housing trust fund that would put away $4.15 million annual for affordable housing.
The fight is still ongoing. County Council has yet to have serious conversations with the S.C. Community Loan Fund about creating an affordable housing trust fund. We are meeting with Council members to urge them to remain faithful to their commitment to create a trust fund.