Looking for affordable housing in Rock Hill? How a $1.2 million boost will help.
A record grant will mean more affordable housing options in
At a
"It is the largest single grant that HDC has ever received," Parenti said.
For the 2018-19 year, the nonprofit group received eight housing, utility assistance, rental, mortgage, first-time homebuyer or related grants. They combine for almost
The city also has two pending grant requests for a combined
The grant will create two-bedroom, senior housing options with accessibility features.
"That's going to help eight low- to moderate-income families," Parenti said.
The city isn't concerned with having to find them.
What's affordable housing
"I finally just decided I would say, I help people buy, fix and keep their homes," Willingham said. "So we kind of adopted that for our mission."
It isn't an easy task. A recent area housing study found a minimum wage worker in
"We are talking about our retail workers," said
A typical vacancy rate is 5%, Wilford said. The
"Not only do we have a balance issue in terms of affordability, we've also got a balance issue in terms of accessibility," Wilford said. "These units are leasing up quickly and they're staying leased up."
The HDC works to help. In the past year, the city had 170 participants in first-time homebuyer classes. Five homeowners were helped to make down payments. The HDC provided
"In their price range there's not a lot of housing stock out there, and they get into bidding wars for the housing," Willingham said. "So this is where the homes that we have constructed are a great resource for them because they are at that affordable price and they are not competing with investors."
The group also spent
"There is a real need out there for people to learn how to manage their money," Willingham said. "They are not getting it from home. They are not getting it from school. We are trying to provide that, and of course, it is free of charge."
What's next
Last fall, the HDC adopted a three-year strategic plan. City departments study income, residence and related data. There's a pilot project to model that information to allow elected officials to make policy decisions.
Wilford said the city has money to build nine to 15 units apart from the
"It doesn't necessarily look like what people may think we're talking about when we say affordable housing," Wilford said. "This looks like what you would see in Riverwalk, in Baxter, in places like that."
Elected officials will have to decide how far to go in creating mixed-income areas, particularly downtown. Councilwoman
"There are still some people that are still just not going to be able to afford that amount," she said. "There are just people who cannot afford to move downtown and move into housing at that price."
Jackson looks at city zoning rules and wonders if there's room to improve. Allowing more apartments in smaller spaces is one issue.
"If we, the city, really want to tackle that, we're going to have to loosen our restraints or revisit our restraints on the zoning, because it's going to prohibit and probably has already prohibited some affordable housing projects," Jackson said.
Wilford said city leaders can determine the viability of affordable housing projects with the rules they set.
"The reality is, the higher the density, the lower the rent can be," Wilford said.
Councilwoman
"It seems that they should be or could be a part of what we are doing here because they do provide the housing for those who cannot afford the affordable and workforce housing," Oborokumo said.
There's still plenty of work for city leaders, but with the new grant and ongoing efforts, there's a sense of making an impact on the options for affordable housing.
"We're building capacity within the community to start doing more and more of this, in more and more places," Wilford said.
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