Letter: Housing booms for whom?

For quite some time now, Greenville has been building new homes at an astounding rate.

As I traverse the city and it’s outlying suburbs, it seems a brand-new development is underway quite often. Single-family home subdivisions, apartment complexes, duplexes and townhomes are all part of the mix. So, who takes up all this readily available living space? Where are all these “new residents” coming from?

If the Greenville-Pitt County area was experiencing an employment boom, I could better understand. But I don’t typically see a lot of new businesses coming to town that require a large employee base. I mean seriously, aside from the recent announcement of an incoming solar manufacturer, I just don’t see that many new employment opportunities. (Aside from car washes, convenience stores and vape shops.)

I took notice of an article recently in The Daily Reflector about a revival in downtown Bethel. No offense to the residents there, but Bethel is not exactly a thriving metropolis.

Upon further reading, I learned the same developers that were attempting to revive the downtown area also were looking to build a mass of new housing units in town. I wondered, is there some new appeal about the town of Bethel that would attract thousands of “new residents?”

But then in a casual discussion with a friend, they said they had heard that thousands of “new residents” were being brought into North Carolina and distributed across the state.

It was further stated, that these “new residents” were refugees from other nations.

Really?

Is this the same impetus that is creating “new residents” in Greenville? Is this the same impetus that pushed our current state governor to expand Medicaid? One wonders. Taxpayers being snowed, again? Government transparency? Hmmmm.

Jerry McRoy

Winterville