Mount Pleasant, South Carolina – Charleston County and Charleston Habitat for Humanity are breaking ground on affordable housing in one of the Lowcountry’s most expensive districts.
The project will create four new homes for Mount Pleasant families.
The effort is part of the county’s Affordable Housing Land Acquisition Grant Program, which assists both nonprofit and for-profit developers in acquiring land for affordable housing. The Charleston Redevelopment Corporation awarded the project a $350,000 grant.
Charleston County originally committed $2.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act monies to the initiative. Eric Davis, Charleston County’s Director of Housing and Land Management, stated that each project contains a minimum 20-year affordability term, which can be extended with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity.
“I think success 10 years down the road looks like it’s easier for folks to both purchase a home and live closer to where they work and where they want to go out for entertainment and things like that,” Davis told reporters.
He went on to say that having access to inexpensive housing has far-reaching consequences for homeowners.
“It’s not just someone’s personal finances and personal situation that we’re trying to help by providing attainable housing,” he told me. “It’s all connected to our economy, our infrastructure, everything,” she remarked.
He also said that more affordable housing may solve many of the Tri-County area’s challenges.
“When we think about it, everything is truly interconnected. If there is no cheap housing near where you work and play, people are forced to travel outside of the metro region, putting a strain on traffic and public transportation. So we’re trying to look at this holistically,” Davis explained.
Families earning between 35% and 80% of the area median income are eligible for any Habitat house. According to U.S. News and World Report, Mount Pleasant has a median income of slightly more than $117,000. While the average two-bedroom rental in Charleston ranges between $1,600 and $1,800 per month, Habitat homeowners will pay closer to $1,000 per month for their mortgage and ownership fees because payments are limited to 30% of gross income.
Lynn Bowley, CEO of Charleston Habitat for Humanity, stated that these four homes represent an important start toward tackling the affordability challenge, in which many key workers are priced out.
“You probably already know a number of folks who would be eligible for a Habitat home. It could be first responders or first-year teachers. It might be folks who work in the medical industry but aren’t doctors or nurses,” Bowley explained.
“It’s really important to be able to build in places like Mount Pleasant where we are not putting people in an area where there is no access to health care or food or schools,” according to Bowley.
However, Bowley stated that as the need for affordable housing grows, so do the problems, one of which is finding suitable locations to build.
“The difficult aspect is finding land in a suitable region that can be subdivided. We do not pass on the expense of land to our homeowners because they are limited to 80% of the region median income. “So, we need to be as cost-conscious as possible,” she explained.
According to Bowley, Habitat is also looking into multifamily properties, tiny home communities, and prospective land trusts to increase density without purchasing more property.
“Four houses is always a big deal, especially since we will be able to build them all together. So it’s almost like having a mini neighborhood,” she explained.
Construction is projected to be completed within two years.
