North Charleston still lacks affordable housing despite donating land.

For years, the city of North Charleston has struggled to offer decent housing to its residents, especially to families with low monthly incomes and limited ability to purchase a home.

Among many strategies the city has implemented in an effort to find the best alternatives to address housing affordability, one was to donate land to allow the construction of new housing for those with middle and low incomes.

About two years ago, the city donated a parcel of land with multiple plots to The Charity Foundation, as part of its strategy to develop housing specifically for area residents.

The Charity Foundation is a non-profit organization that works to improve access for African American communities to public education, housing, employment, and provides training and financial education so that its community can learn better financial control.

The land donated by the city of North Charleston is located in the Liberty Hill area, and to date, the organization has only developed two affordable housing units, still falling short of the number of properties originally proposed to meet the donation’s intended purpose.

The foundation’s goal remains to create more affordable housing for the growing, needy population to help alleviate some of the many challenges facing the Liberty Hill community.

Since 2022, the organization has been the legal owner of the lot and, from that date, committed to the city to create housing that could meet the community’s demand. However, they have not yet been able to meet the agreed-upon number of housing units set out in the initial proposal.

In recent statements by a representative of The Charity Foundation, it was revealed that the construction of these new properties has not progressed due to the inability to secure financial assistance to continue their housing project.

Due to past negative experiences with this organization and others that have not fulfilled their goal of creating affordable housing for underserved communities, the North Charleston administration no longer considers land donation as a strategy for developing new housing.

Available foreclosures:

North Charleston: 25 houses available

Liberty Hill: 10 houses available

By Elías DaSilva | 29 de octubre de 2024.