HHI service worker housing again under threat: ‘We are here and we are human beings’
This story has been updated to include new information on parcel purchasing and the total size of the development.
In a second possible setback within the week to affordable housing availability for Hilton Head Island’s service industry workers, preliminary plans to redevelop an existing community of mobile homes into long-term rentals attracting “young professionals” have been submitted to the town.
If the Olive Shell Court’s plan is approved, it will likely displace for a short-term, and possibly forever, another 60 people who cook, clean, build and maintain some of the island’s most popular resorts and communities.
A resident said Friday was the first time they heard from property management about the development, despite most leases ending June 30. They’re giving tenants until October to vacate.
“Be fair to us,” said resident Yulissa Turcios, who has lived at Olive Shell Court since 2017 with her daughter, mother-in-law and mother, who has a disability. “Behind all these big houses are people who clean their bathrooms, clean their kitchens. We are here and we are human beings.”
Last month Crevo Capital Holding LLC applied to turn the 24 mobile home subdivisions off of Spanish Wells Road into a unified development with 32 three-bedroom homes. Their permit hasn’t been approved yet, which means there could still be changes to the plans, and they consolidated the individual lots last year.
Turcios said she found out about the development from friends, not the property management, and the translator “refused to say the truth when we asked her.”
“We were surprised and didn’t know how it happens because they never said nothing about that,” she said.
Turcios said the first communication they received from property management was Friday. They sent notices in English and Spanish that tenants could extend their leases four months until the end of October, which is after the high season and better timing to find housing in the area.
Turcios said four months are better than a month, but it’s unlikely she’ll find another option on Hilton Head that fits her family’s needs. She says they’re afraid they’ll have to move off of the island, displacing them from the community they’ve lived in for almost six years and forcing her daughter to change schools — not to mention the much longer commute to her work cleaning homes on Hilton Head.
“When I commute to work, if we move there, it’s gonna take us around two hours when the traffic is high,” she said.
Crevo Capital is a private equity firm specializing in real estate investment, development and operations, according to their website. Their portfolio is mostly in Illinois and includes luxury student apartments, multi-family housing and commercial buildings. Hilton Head Island Housing Guy LLC sold the 5.61 acre lot to Crevo Capital in January 2023 for $3.8 million, according to the deed.
Property records detail the land Crevo Capital purchased was 1.25 acres, but this only accounts for the road on the property and doesn’t include the 14 lots, common area and storage area included in the deal.
According to Project Manager Trey Lowe the entire subdivision is actually 5.16 acres or roughly the equivalent of four football fields.
When Crevo Capital submitted the project to the town in April they were sent back to the drawing board for a second “Preliminary Submittal,” in which the project is reviewed by town staff, management and senior management. Then, if the town believes it is ready, they schedule a “Development Review Team meeting,” which the public can attend.
This comes in the wake of developers at Hilton Head’s Chimney Cove filing plans to turn the “affordable” housing development into a luxury apartment. Chimney Cove is a larger housing development that was at the center of local outcry over failed mass evictions last August.
Mobile home renters at Olive Shell pay about $1,700 monthly, according to Sandy Gillis of the Deep Well Project, a nonprofit group that provides food and housing aid to islanders in need. Rent on Hilton Head Island is 84% higher than the national median, according to Zillow, and the median monthly rent is $3,950.
The plan doesn’t say what the of pricing the new rental homes will be, but says they will “provide an opportunity for young professionals and working families to be closer to their jobs and involved as full-time residents of the island.”
“Most of the people who are living there moved in there when it opened and they’ve been there continuously,” Gillis said. “For six years, they’ve had (almost) zero turnover. The same kind of people there. I’m sure lots of landlords would love to have renters with a track record like that.”
Gillis said the developers may allow the renters to buy their mobile homes, but then there’s the challenge of finding land to put them on and the cost to buy and move them.
Even if the apartments are priced similarly and the residents could rent from the new apartment, residents will be displaced during the construction and the plans didn’t detail a timeline.
“Unless there’s some change they’re going to have to leave at the same time and we’re talking (24) mobile homes,” Gillis said.
“We understand it’s a tough situation,” Crevo Captial President Corey Wenzel said.
He declined to comment further and said they’ll be sending out a press release with more details about the development shortly.
“We’re working hard, we pay our rent. We work hard on this island,” Turcios said. “I’m pretty sure the people who’s gonna work hard to build these houses is gonna be the same people (who are being asked to leave).”
This story was originally published May 30, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
