GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - The mayor of Greenville says affordable housing must be included in a $1 billion redevelopment project near the city’s trendy downtown area.
Mayor Knox White told a meeting last week he considers affordable housing to be “non-negotiable.”
Greenville’s city center is considered a model for revitalization, and officials are looking at a proposal to spend $1 billion on a redevelopment project within walking distance of the area.
The Greenville News reports as many as 1,500 apartments would be built under the current plan.
“Suffice it to say,” White said, “we want a mix of housing types.”
The area that’s being redeveloped doesn’t currently include housing, but it’s beside one of the city’s oldest African American communities. Rising home prices are raising concerns about what will happen to area residents.
The redevelopment of the area, called County Square, is still in its early stages, with approval of its master plan by the city’s planning commission still weeks away.
Work could start on the project’s first building, a new county headquarters, late this year. Any residential construction would come later.
A 2016 study found a roughly 2,500-unit shortage of affordable housing in the city. Since then, Greenville has committed millions of dollars to establish an affordable housing fund to help address the issue.
“It’s always difficult when you have a successful city because values rise,” White said at a meeting Thursday.
For natives like Lily Kilgore, the only option for housing her family of five is to move outside Greenville. She has a home in Simpsonville with her husband and children.
“I can’t afford to live where I grew up,” she said.
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