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.
When over 1600 people showed up for our April 2018 Nehemiah Action Assembly, 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.” During the summer of 2018, CAJM hosted two Regional Housing Coalition Meetings, including national housing trust fund expert, Michael Anderson, who gave a presentation on the benefits of establishing a regional housing trust fund. We will continue meeting with elected officials and speaking out at meetings, calling for permanent funding sources for the Trust Fund. Please follow this link to read the Regional Housing Trust Fund Proposal.
When speakers leading the Nehemiah Assembly asked us “What’s our call?” our answer was always “Housing for all!” We answered with one voice, knowing that the Charleston area should not just belong to tourists and to the wealthy. Affordable housing is something every member of our community deserves. As we continue our work, CAJM members also continue to strengthen relationships across the Charleston area. Individuals from differing neighborhoods, economic status, race and ethnicity, and faith traditions are working together, increasing our understanding of others in our community we wouldn’t otherwise have known. Our research and action are helping us forge deeper connections with each other, bringing us closer to what Martin Luther King called “the beloved community.” It won’t happen if we don’t work for it.