CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston County Council approved over a million dollars to go towards affordable housing initiatives at their council meeting Thursday night.
This is a part of their Affordable Housing Land Acquisition Grant Program, which is a pilot program that supports land acquisition grants for qualifying groups. This includes nonprofit and for-profit agencies with previous experiences in affordable house building. The county has partnered with the Charleston Redevelopment Corporation to help make this happen.
"This program is such an incredible opportunity because we get to partner with our local stakeholders in this and it truly is a public, private partnership that is going to enable us to offer the affordable housing to address the crisis we're in," Councilmember Jenny Costa Honeycutt said.
The county had previously set aside $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funds for this program. At Thursday night's meeting, $1.6 million of it was awarded to four different affordable housing projects to help purchase and develop the land.
"Each arrangement is going to look somewhat different, but that's what is really unique about it, it provides that flexibility to bring as many affordable housing units to the market as we can," Honeycutt said.
The agencies had to apply for this program which was completed back in October. Honeycutt said that when picking the projects the applicants had to present their entire plan to the county which is then reviewed and compared to the other plans that were submitted.
The four developments that were awarded funding Thursday night will be located in West Ashley, North Charleston, Murray Hill area, and Mount Pleasant.
The West Ashley affordable housing development will be located off Ashley Crossing Drive and is proposed to be a multifamily rental property with household incomes between 60 and 120 percent of the area median income. The county awarded $500,000 to the developer of this project.
The North Charleston affordable housing development is proposed as a two-community, 104-unit townhome project located off of Ashley Phosphate Road. This development will be for households making less than 80 and 50 percent of the area's median income. The county awarded $500,000 to the developer of this project.
The Murray Hill area affordable housing development is proposed to have eight homes and the county awarded the developer $250,000.
The Mount Pleasant affordable housing development is proposed to have four one-level, single-family homes for purchase. It will be located at 3667 Tower Drive in Mount Pleasant, which is currently where an abandoned church sits. The county awarded $350,000 to the developer of this project.
"It's where people see an opportunity and then can leverage those dollars whether it's through the purchase of the land, the construction, and really that's what is unique about the program is they can bring anything that would work and meets the criteria to the table," Honeycutt said.
Officials say that the developers must begin construction within two years of signing the grant agreement.