Reprinted from The Post & Courier
GREENVILLE — More land near Unity Park has been reserved for affordable housing, with City Council using a new law to dip into its tourism revenues for the first time.
The council gave initial approval April 8 to appropriate nearly $1 million to buy church property for what is known as “workforce housing” at the intersection of West Washington and Trescott streets close to the Greenville Amtrak station in the Southernside community.
The purchase will be funded with local accommodations tax dollars, which are collected on lodging and weren’t allowed to be used for housing until a change in state law last year.
The land is currently occupied by the Holy Temple Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, a white, one-story building surrounded by a chain-link fence. After the purchase, the land would touch another property already owned by the city, creating a rectangular, roughly 0.9-acre site for development.
City Councilwoman Dorothy Dowe told The Post and Courier the city’s ownership of this property is vital.
“Just like the other Unity Park parcels, the land is free because we own it, so that’s a huge part of the cost,” he said.
Now, it will be reserved for workforce housing, which the new state law defines as 30 to 120 percent of the median family income as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In Greenville, the median income is $88,600 for a family of four, while 30 percent is $26,580 per year and 120 percent $106,320 per year. Workforce housing commonly applies to workers like teachers, firefighters and hospitality workers.