In August, we launched a Regional Housing Coalition to champion regional efforts for attainable housing, which addresses housing needs ranging from homelessness to affluent homes. We are also proud to announce that we have been selected as the lead agent for the One Region Roadmap, leading the efforts in attainability.

Regional Housing Coalition and CCSD Teacher Compensation Committee

Charleston County School District has been working to increase teacher salaries. Consider this, out of 170 teachers that were surveyed across three schools, 53.6% of them or their spouse have a second job and, of those 53.6%, only 4.9% are first-year teachers. 

Bill Briggman, Chief Human Resource Officer for Charleston County School District, adds, “the substantial cost of living and lack of affordable housing in Charleston have become some of the primary obstacles to attracting and retaining teachers in CCSD.” 

The Regional Housing Coalition has been working with the teacher compensation committee to provide some facts about the housing market in our region. The rising cost of housing is impacting the future of education. Teachers are leaving the classroom to seek better paying jobs and, unfortunately, we are seeing teachers living further away from where they work due to the current lack of attainable housing in our region. For this reason, it is difficult to recruit and retain quality teachers.  

“Without a more competitive salary schedule reflective of the cost of living locally, teachers cannot locate or qualify for housing in the very competitive market,” said Bill Briggman.

The housing crisis is not only affecting teachers but others in the service industry including police officers, firefighters and office staff. The current lack of attainable housing makes it tough for service workers to compete in an already rigorous market and it becomes even more difficult for families earning within the 0-30% AMI in our region.  

Charleston County Housing Our Future Plan

The Charleston County Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization department has been hard at work presenting the frameworks of the housing plan. The department spent the last two months holding community meetings to share the plan and receive feedback from the community. People are happy that the County is stepping up and looking towards solutions. The Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization department, led by Darrell Davis, will use the feedback to address issues and concerns and a full plan is expected to be published on November 17.  The public comment period will be from November 17 – December 31. The department will be hosting several opportunities for the public to provide feedback on the plan.  

The next community outreach session will be held on October 26 at the Wiltown Community Center in Adams Run, SC.  

To learn more about the public meetings, visit Charleston County Housing our Future.

How You Can Make a Difference

We are always looking for leaders like you to contribute your skills to our Regional Housing Coalition.

There are four subcommittees that are open for individuals to serve: 

• Public relations
• Funding
• Policy development
• Technical  

To learn more about how you can make a positive impact on our housing attainability crisis, join the coalition!

Written by Craig Logan, Housing Executive Fellow