It’s been 4 months since Hilton Head woke up to its public housing issues. What’s changed?
In a town where sea turtle lighting and golf course redevelopment stimulate substantial public discourse, the people of Hilton Head Island seem to agree on at least one thing: Sandalwood Terrace, the 40-year-old deteriorating public housing complex on the north end, should be torn down.
But it is not as simple as razing and rebuilding.
In the four months since an Island Packet investigation detailed the housing authority’s failures to provide low-income residents in Hilton Head with safe and sanitary living, Sandalwood residents, Beaufort Housing Authority officials and town council members have all said they want the property to be demolished and rebuilt.
But when and how that happens — if it’s even possible — and what should replace it remain subject to debate, even as those decisions fall largely to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Although Sandalwood is on Hilton Head Island — and, some council members have said, continues to hurt their brand — its leaders do not have direct control over the project’s future, because it is owned by BHA, a countywide entity.
It may be years before the buildings see substantial renovations or reconstruction — and town leaders frustratingly acknowledge they have little power to change that.
Town leaders’ primary function in a possible redevelopment, BHA executive director Angela Childers explained in a presentation Monday to the council’s community services and public safety committee, would be to leverage political connections to get help from the federal housing agency, HUD.
Childers proposes that Beaufort Housing Authority try to turn all 293 of its public housing units into voucher properties, which would allow the agency access to more federal and private money for renovation or reconstruction. In project-based voucher housing, funding is attached to a specific unit whose landlord has a contract with the housing authority to lease the unit to low-income families.
BHA needs HUD to approve this change and provide the vouchers — a multi-step process that would take months, maybe years, before rehabilitation of the decayed public housing even begins. The current step, environmental reviews of the sites, should be completed by mid-April, Childers said.
If all goes as planned, Sandalwood’s 80 units would be addressed first, she said, noting that HUD gets to decide whether they are renovated or rebuilt.
Ron Ianoale, a Hilton Head resident and BHA board member, said Sandalwood should be demolished and a new complex created. But, he said, that would take time.
“The building’s old, the systems are old,” he said. “I think there’s some mold and water problems there. I don’t know if we need to continue to invest money there.”
Several council members worried about the amount of time, saying living conditions at Sandalwood remain uninhabitable, and the agency needs a fall-back plan in case HUD does not approve BHA’s reclassification request.
“I would feel a lot more comfortable if we were at least starting to examine the nuts and bolts of HUD saying no, or HUD not offering up enough funding to improve the situation,” said Ward 1 town council member Alex Brown.
One alternative, some council members suggested, was for the town to provide developers who invested in Sandalwood with tax credits or density bonuses.
“What are the alternative strategies that would allow the private sector or nonprofits to get involved in this project in an almost contractual agreement, perhaps with the Beaufort Housing project?” asked Ward 3 town council member David Ames. “There are developers knocking on our doors saying, ‘What’s available on Hilton Head Island?’ Partnership opportunities are something that we ought to be talking about.”
Concrete change
In late October, Beaufort Housing Authority said it planned to put fire extinguishers in units on the first and second floors of Sandalwood Terrace’s apartment buildings, a process that could take up to 90 days.
Hilton Head Fire and Rescue public information officer Joheida Fister said the apartment complex has installed at least one extinguisher in most of the common spaces of the larger buildings, for a total of eight. To meet code requirements, they must install 20 more extinguishers in buildings’ exterior areas, a Fire and Rescue document outlined.
To some Sandalwood residents, the lack of fire extinguishers and urgency to install them pointed to not just a life-threatening safety issue, but also the housing authority’s apathy about its residents’ well being.
“I really feel in my heart the reason why they are not going through it quickly is because they know they are wrong,” said Briana Cohen, a former Sandalwood resident.
Cohen’s apartment had caught on fire after an exhaust fan burned, forcing her and her daughter to move. A battle with Beaufort Housing Authority over rent payments and living conditions in the replacement apartment ensued.
In mid-November, they finally left Sandalwood, where they had lived since March 2020.
“We were unaware that the apartments were in those conditions, but we had no choice,” Cohen said. “It’s still a roof over our heads. It should have never been in that predicament with the roach infestation.”
Childers said some repairs pointed out in the newspaper article have been made. But several residents said conditions have not improved substantially, and they’ve formed a residents’ association in an effort to get the problems addressed.
“If they can tear down a school, why are they not tearing down this apartment complex?” Cohen said. ”Something needs to be done.”
