Making Affordable Housing Happen

Today I spoke at a Mount Pleasant Planning Commission meeting in support of the Lowcountry Housing Trust’s $100,000 funding proposal, which would have allowed them to provide financing to affordable housing projects in Mount Pleasant, SC.

I came not only as a Mount Pleasant resident, but also as a mother, a local business owner, and wife of a City of Charleston Firefighter.

Housing in Mount Pleasant, SC is among the most expensive in the Lowcountry. Probably, some of you even know people who are struggling under the escalating costs of housing in the area.

Sustainable communities need affordable housing. The strength of our local economy, the well being of our neighborhoods and the health and welfare of diverse population groups depends upon the availability of quality, affordable housing. Yet Mount Pleasant lags shamefully behind in providing this basic need to its residents. Even Daniel Island, the bastion of exclusivity, has partnered with the Humanities Foundation to produce a shinning example of how affordable housing can be an integral part of any community.

When a town is driven by "economic feasibility" and "market demands," it gradually becomes too expensive for the very residents who were supposed to benefit from the increased services and improved infrastructure in the first place. Which is why affordable housing is so very important.

Sustainable, good quality affordable housing is central to our long-term success as a town, and central to the regeneration of communities across the Lowcountry.

In addition to helping residents, affordable housing benefits the wider community in other significant ways:

• Providing housing for the local workforce, especially lower wage earners
• Revitalizing distressed areas
• Directing economic benefits to the local community, such as increased jobs and sales taxes
• Is better for the environment by reducing traffic and improving air quality
• Promoting economic and social integration while building community

The people who live in affordable housing want housing for the same reasons that we all do: to provide a nurturing environment to raise children; to remain in the community where they were raised or to become part of a community in which they want to settle; and to live in an attractive, safe environment that they can afford.

Most residents of affordable housing are actively working. They are employed as schoolteachers, secretaries, restaurant workers, sales clerks, and local government employees such as policemen, and firefighters. These workers need affordable housing because of the wide gap between what they earn and what housing costs. Being the wife of a Firefighter I know first hand the very real challenges that our first responders have in trying to live in the communities that they serve.

Many seniors need affordable housing too. The high cost of housing can devastate their fixed incomes from pensions and Social Security.

Hearing members of the commission and representatives from the Town of Mount Pleasant voice their opinions, it became painfully obvious that there is a reason why they have been unable to reach any kind of consensus for over 6 years.

The Town of Mount Pleasant needs to step up to the plate, and provide incentives, zoning ordinances and a collaborative atmosphere that encourages developers to do the right thing and provide Housing for All.