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Daniel Island News
September 7 , 2006
By Tom Ratzloff
The specter of Tropical Storm Ernesto swirled over North Charleston last Wednesday as the Lowcountry Housing Trust awarded more than $300,000 to agencies working to create local affordable housing.
A fast-closing storm seemed an appropriate symbol for an issue that challenges local non-profit and governmental agencies and jeopardizes the American dream of affordable rental or home ownership.
"The real estate boom has left many deserving individuals behind," said Vince Graham, Lowcountry Housing Trust board chairman and local developer. "The Trust seeks to secure and distribute funds that make it possible for hardworking families to purchase their own homes in this desirable community. Today’s distributions of grants will go a long way to helping many deserving families."
The Rev. Bill Stanfield of Metanoia, a North Charleston non-profit affordable housing group, acknowledged the impending deluge to stress the importance of working together. His group received $50,000 to provide affordable housing opportunities in the Chicora/Cherokee neighborhood.
"If you’re worried about flooding, don’t worry, we’re on higher ground," Stanfield said.
He said communities have the option to stand together on lower ground, where people get overwhelmed and shut out, or to work together and move themselves to higher ground, where people who are struggling can stay together, do better and stay dry.
"Higher ground is something that takes work from all of us," Stanfield said. "All of us must be committed to not staying on lower ground where developers are just in it for profit and nothing else, where city municipalities don’t seem to care about communities that are struggling the most. Lower ground is where people who can’t get a leg up never have an opportunity for their own assets and higher ground is the complete opposite of that."
Today’s "lower ground" is America’s scarcity of affordable housing. Housing costs have far outpaced personal incomes throughout the Lowcountry and nationwide in recent years. Today, one-third of American families spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing, which meets the federal definition of an "unaffordable" burden, according to writer Michael Grunwald of the Washington Post.
His Aug. 27 story, "The Housing Crisis Goes Suburban," cited a Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies report which found that 15 million families spend at least 50 percent of their income on housing, which qualifies as a "critical" financial burden under federal guidelines. Consequently, affordable housing is a more serious burden today for low- to moderate-income Americans than taxes, Social Security or gas prices.
A severe shortage of affordable housing stock, coupled with congressional inaction over the past 20 years, has exacerbated the crisis, Grunwald wrote. Workers increasingly have to commute to their jobs from outlying "affordable" communities. This increases traffic congestion, adds to pollution and severely degrades families since parents can’t spend quality time with their children.
One factor that inhibits development of safe, affordable housing is "snob zoning," according to Grunwald. Elite communities employ zoning regulations such as density restrictions, minimum-lot requirements and parking limits to discourage multi-family or even modest single-family housing.
But some developers now recognize the importance of including "workforce" housing to promote healthy communities and are reserving a percentage of their housing stock for affordable units. This is a concept endorsed by North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, who was keynote speaker at the Aug. 30 Lowcountry Housing Trust awards ceremony.
"Affordable housing is not what it used to be," Summey said. "It’s not gigantic high-rise projects. It’s integrating people into existing neighborhoods and giving them the opportunity to live there, to share amenities, and to pay taxes. But the cost of affordable housing has risen dramatically over the years, and one of the funding mechanisms we’re
starting to look at is assessing value to every newly constructed community that’s built and saying, "Mr. Developer, you will either build a segment in affordable housing or you will contribute so that others can do it."
Substandard housing doubly punishes the poor, Summey said.
"One of the issues that’s always disturbed me is that the people who can afford to pay the least for air conditioning pay the most," he said. "By putting someone in a home that is well built, environmentally friendly and easier to maintain, they may save $50 to $100 a month. That can be the difference in their quality of life."
Summey said governments must find new ways to make affordable housing a reality for everyone.
"The government that works today is the one that thinks outside the box," the mayor said. "You’ve got to find new, original concepts. It may not work but you don’t know if you don’t try."
It’s the "begat theory," said Summey, noting that Metanoia’s housing initiative in Chicora/Cherokee can transform the neighborhood.
"When this area is finished, it will be a star," he said. "Stars draw attention. It’s biblical. A lot of people don’t like politicians to talk about religion but if I’ve got a house that’s falling down, in two years the house next to it won’t be standing. But if I build a new house, in two years there will be a better house next door.
"In changing communities, it’s the begat theory. One change leads to another. So, let’s go out and begat. Let’s begat this entire community and every area around here. I can’t make Chicora/Cherokee Coosaw Creek, but we can make it the best community it can be."
Lowcountry Housing Trust grant recipients included:
· Charleston Area CDC -- $40,000 for Sterling Homes development to provide home ownership opportunities for families below 50 percent of average median income in Charleston;
· Charleston Habitat for Humanity -- $30,000 for housing for an elderly couple in North Charleston;
· Humanities Foundation -- $50,000 for Ivy Ridge Apartments to provide affordable multi-family rental housing in North Charleston;
· Metanoia CDC -- $50,000 for its Scattered Site Housing to provide home ownership opportunities in the Chicora/Cherokee neighborhood of North Charleston;
· Pastors Inc. -- $50,000 for Ebenezer Social Action Rental Housing Program to provide affordable family rental in Charleston;
· Sea Island Habitat for Humanity -- $50,000 for Canal Place, which will provide Habitat homes for very low-income families in Hollywood, S.C.;
· United Methodist Relief Center -- $42,000 for its Houses on the Move and Elderly Transportable Cottages programs, which provide affordable rental for citizens of rural Charleston County.
"As existing federal and state funding sources continue to decline, local communities must find creative ways to raise funds to finance area housing needs," said Tammie Hoy, executive director of Lowcountry Housing Trust. "We think today’s grants prove the need is great, and this community’s willingness to respond is just as great."
Hoy’s non-profit organization was founded last year and aims to provide a consistent funding source for creation, rehabilitation and preservation of affordably priced housing in the tri-county area. It is one of more than 300 housing trust funds operating nationwide and works with area municipalities and governmental agencies to identify funding sources.
