Repair, improvements, new construction focus of 2015 Bluffton affordable housing efforts
The bad news is that Bluffton built no new publicly funded, affordable homes this year.
The good news is that the town made strides with programs aimed at repairing and improving houses owned by low and moderate income residents.
The town's Neighborhood Assistance Program -- overseen by the Affordable Housing Committee -- provides home repairs for those unable to afford them.
The main goal of the repairs is to ensure homes are "dry and safe," growth management director Kendra Lelie told the committee at a workshop last week.
Once an applicant moves past the stringent qualification process, the town helps out "if the roof is leaking, if there is plumbing leaking in the house, if there are windows or doors that won't shut appropriately," she said.
The town facilitated 15 such repairs in 2015 at a cost of nearly $71,000, according to town documents.
The program proved so popular last year that town council voted to allocate it an additional $9,000 previously earmarked for other projects.
"We know that there is a need for it," Lelie said. "We see new applications coming in on a weekly basis."
CHALLENGES AND PROGRESS
Despite its success, the program is not without its challenges.
One of the biggest, Lelie said, is "finding contractors to do the work because (repair jobs such as leaky roofs and windows) are a smaller type of project."
Contractors hired by the town only provide structural repairs, leaving cosmetic work such as painting walls and ceilings to the homeowner.
Councilman Fred Hamilton, chairman of the Affordable Housing Committee, said in the coming year he would like that practice reconsidered.
"When we go in and do a repair ... we don't finish it," he said. "It's just rough" when a roof or ceiling is repaired but not painted.
The Neighborhood Assistance Program doesn't only help repair homes, it also pays to tear them down.
"We are demolishing homes that are not safe and taking them out of neighborhoods where potential criminal activity can occur," Lelie said.
Two unsafe structures were knocked down last year at a cost of nearly $9,000, according to town documents.
In 2015, Bluffton reached a milestone in its multi-year effort to connect homes in the Buck-Island Simmonsville neighborhood to the town's sewer system.
More than half of the 237 homes eligible for the project have been connected, according to town documents.
These homes had been using septic tanks, which are prone to leaching contaminants into the groundwater.
By taking septic tanks out of use, the $2.1-million project has helped "protect the May River and the environment," Hamilton said.
Funding for the project, which will continue through 2016 and beyond, comes mainly from federal grants.
WHAT'S NEXT
Last year's efforts to improve living conditions for lower income Blufftonians are "certainly something to be proud of," Lelie said, "but there is more work to be done -- that's always going to be the case."
Over the next five years, the town's goal is to help build at least 21 new affordable housing units.
"We are looking for (developers) who are interested in partnering with the town to provide affordable housing," Lelie said.
But that search for a partner has been a challenge.
Town leaders would prefer to see public money used to build single-family homes and encourage homeownership, while developers are more interested in building "larger, rental and multifamily" projects, Lelie said.
While the search for a partner continues, the town is pursuing a strategy that officials hope will encourage developers to build more low-cost units on their own.
A proposal that would permit developers to squeeze more units onto a plot of land if a certain percentage of those units are priced affordably will likely come before town council next month, Lelie said.
Read the presentation
Click the "popout" button (
) while hovering over the document window below to see this content in full screen mode.
Follow reporter Lucas High on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Lucas.
Related content:
Jan. 9, 2016 Finding an affordable place to live likely will get harder this year, a trend that could spell trouble for our area, which is dependent on a low and middle-income workforce to staff restaurants, hotels, golf courses and spas. | READ
- Potential development rules changes to bring more affordable housing to Bluffton, Oct. 11, 2015
- Priced out of Bluffton: As town grows, some lower-income residents forced to look elsewhere for affordable housing, Sept. 23, 2015
- Bluffton developing program to fight blight, Sept. 3, 2015
This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Repair, improvements, new construction focus of 2015 Bluffton affordable housing efforts."