The goal of the Greenville Housing Fund is to achieve housing affordability for all, said Tiffany Santagati at the recent meeting of First Monday, a luncheon club for Greenville Republicans.
Santagati, the vice president for operations at the Fund, and Amber Stewart, Advocacy and Community Engagement Director, were the featured speakers at the luncheon which consisted of chicken breast, roasted sweet potatoes, and carrots.
The Fund, a non-profit entity, was established in 2018 to address what Santagati describes as a deficit in affordable housing in Greenville. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines affordable housing as housing (plus utilities) that costs no more than 30% of a household's gross income.
Santagati said that housing prices have continued to increase, but incomes have not increased at the same rate. The goal of the Greenville Housing Fund is, by 2040, to have 10% of all new houses affordable. She said that there is currently a 20,000 home deficit in affordable housing. The Fund is designed to assist households that fall below the AMI, or Area Median Income, to afford housing.
Santagati provided the following illustration – A local school teacher makes $50,503 a year. Her monthly rent, at 30% of her income, should be no more than $1,263.
“It's hard to get an apartment or a house at that rate,” said Santagati. She also noted that Greenlink bus drivers earn just $2,600 month. It would be extremely difficult for that worker to afford rent in the Greenville market.
According to the Fund's website, “Greenville Housing Fund is the convener of a multiple stakeholder coalition of neighborhood representatives, elected officials, government, nonprofit and for-profit affordable housing developers and citizens, who have come together to collectively impact this complex problem our community faces.”
Affordable housing is financed through a number of sources, including traditional financing, Low Income Tax Credits and Community Development Block Grants, which are funded by the federal government and are distributed by local governments.
The Fund focuses not only on new housing but also existing housing in need of repair. So far, the Fund has assisted in the preservation of 730 existing homes and the production of 1018 new dwellings, according to Stewart.
One slide in their slideshow listed the Fund's priorities for this year, which include engaging and educating elected officials, inclusion of funding in city and county budgets, providing single-family property tax abatement to households with incomes between 50% and 80% AMI when purchasing a new home, supporting the passage of the county's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) and supporting legislation to remove eviction records from the public record, among other things.
Stewart also touched on the need for affordable 'workforce' housing for workers who work in the city, such as those in the service industry, but who cannot afford to live in the city, especially downtown.
