Affordable Housing Update
What we want: For Richland County Council to pass an ordinance to establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF). We want Richland County Council to dedicate $10 million in ARPA funding as seed money for the AHTF.
There are over 16,000 families in need of safe and affordable housing in Richland County. Over 800 communities across the country are implementing Affordable Housing Trust Funds (AHTFs) to get to the root of their housing crises including Greenville and Charlotte. HTFs do not create public/Section 8 housing, instead they create housing that is safe and affordable for working people such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc.
It is time for Richland County to join those communities in prioritizing that every person has a place to call home. Richland County Council has had an ordinance to establish a HTF stuck in the Development & Services Committee for over a year. The next step is for Richland County Council to move the ordinance out of committee and approve it in full council. Richland County would not be the entity running the day-to-day operations of the Trust Fund, but would authorize a non-profit entity to do this. As a matter of fact, South Carolina law actually requires a non-profit entity to run a County Housing Trust Fund. With over $80 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds coming into Richland County, now is a golden opportunity for our County to take action on a long-term solution to the housing crisis that has existed for over 20 years.
We want $10 million in ARPA funds to be allocated as seed money for a Housing Trust Fund in Richland County. A key for a HTF to be effective is to have a dedicated source of revenue down the line, but we need seed money to get started. An Affordable Housing Trust Fund has the potential to create hundreds and even thousands of units of housing each year and that is what we need to make sure everyone in Richland County has a safe and affordable place to live.
