Charleston discusses affordable housing plan for Sumar Street and Union Pier

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The Holy City’s population is growing quickly and so is the need for affordable housing.

“People are moving here. They have a higher income, so it’s pushing the median income up and that’s making things less and less affordable for the people that have been here,” said Mayor William Cogswell. “I think your average citizen does feel that it’s not just low income- this is kind of all across the board so it’s a real social and economic issue that we’ve got to address and we’ve gotten pretty aggressive.”

The city is working on a plan to add more affordable housing as they develop areas like Union Pier and Sumar Street. The Sumar Street plan has finalized affordable housing, and the city is working to add it to the Union Pier project.

“We feel that it is an opportunity to provide significant affordable housing on the peninsula with an existing infrastructure and next to public transportation, so we’re pretty optimistic about getting creative on how to do that,” said Cogswell.

At a meeting Thursday night, council members reviewed a plan to add 3,500 homes by 2030 and double the number of homes sold annually. It also aims to stabilize 1,000 homes with income restrictions to protect market-rate housing.

“We’ll start hounding in on specifics and where I am on this is not just to have a number on a piece of paper, but actually have projects that we can execute on to deliver affordable housing and have realistic public-private partnership so that we don’t increase people’s taxes to provide this we do in a way that is physically responsible,” said Cogswell.

The plan is estimated to cost around $800 million.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2.