Making Housing Affordable – Housing for All

This past Wednesday Carolyn and I attended the Housing for All: Developing Housing for the Workforce forum co-sponsored by ULI South Carolina (Urban Land Institute) and the Lowcountry Housing Trust. Held at 10 Storehouse Row located in the Navy Yard at Noisette, which itself is a shinning example of adaptive reuse and sustainability, 125 local leaders gathered to discuss the challenges effecting affordable housing in the Lowcountry and discussed new ideas to encourage more reasonably priced housing projects. The following are some highlights from the forum.

(10 Storehouse Row)

Statistics presented by Mary Graham, Vice President of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, confirmed that soaring prices in the Charleston area are putting homeownership out reach for lower and middle-income workers. The lack of affordable housing doesn’t just affect the poor or workers in lower-income jobs, the problem now hits home with people who earn between 80 percent and 120 percent of the median income, which is roughly $31,500 to $67,500, depending on the size of the household. Contributing to this problem is that while housing prices have climbed, income levels haven’t kept up the pace. Graham said that Charleston is now considered less affordable than both Atlanta and Charlotte.

Developers are building higher-priced homes to cover escalating land costs. Strict density limits and other government requirements, such as setbacks and retention ponds, are forcing suburban communities to spread out. In our case, developers are moving up the 1-26 corridor to areas such as Summerville and Jedburg.

When local public officials or developers look to ease those restrictions and try to do something different, residents often fight against these projects in their neighborhoods. This phenomenon, often described as ”NIMBYism“ (deriving from the acronym, Not In My Back Yard), appears to be nearly universal, occurring with different variations in urban, suburban and rural areas from coast to coast. Whether based in reason or emotion, however, opponents’ views are generally deeply held. Community opposition reflects neighbors’ concerns that their lives will change for the worse. Sometimes these concerns are concrete and rational, focused on measurable impacts on a neighborhood. More frequently, they are based on stereotype and anxiety about the new residents or the units in which they will live.

In order to make authentic decisions, we need to listen to each other. Without encouraging full public discussion, communities come up short. Businesses move away, jobs are lost, highways are clogged, and air gets polluted. Not only must we consider this issue from a cost standpoint, but also from the sustainability side - high durability, low operating costs, environmentally healthy, diversity (mixed-use), and locating the dwellings near workplaces are just as important to consider.

All these factors have led to a “housing crisis” said Tammie Hoy, Executive Director of the Lowcountry Housing Trust. With more than 135,000 new homes on the drawing board in the tri-county area, Hoy and others hope that some of those dwellings will be affordable. North Charleston City Planner Bill Gore said elected officials might disapprove housing projects with higher density to appease voters. Attendees agreed that overcoming the stigma of affordable housing is tough, but Charleston Planning Director Josh Martin said advocates should highlight successful high-density developments to win over the opposition.

Although the continued escalation in housing costs are slowing shutting out huge segments of the population from being able to access decent affordable housing either for-purchase or for rent, we have a great opportunity to make a difference. I encourage you to learn more about this issue by visiting ULI and the Lowcountry Housing Trust websites.