Affordable homes coming to North Charleston neighborhood

NORTH CHARLESTON S.C. (WCBD)– Ten new affordable housing units are coming to North Charleston’s Chicora neighborhood, and four are nearly ready for renters.

Metanoia is a community support organization focused primarily on North Charleston. The group partnered with multiple other organizations to assist and build homes for those in need.

“We engage in a process of constantly listening to neighborhood walking with families and trying to build on their strengths here within the neighborhood, and we do that in the form of year-round programming for young people. We do that in the form of new homes for them that they can buy or rent affordably,” said Bill Stanfield, The CEO of Metanoia.

Four properties are located on Grayson Street and have three bedrooms and two baths, with stainless steel appliances, walk-in closets, and a porch. Two homes are also certified by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to help serve disabled tenants.

The homes are strictly for anyone earning at or below 50% of the area median income. Leaders say these units are less than half of the market rate in the area.

“We’re looking at whether it’s the rural areas that are kind of you having some struggles or the urban areas or pockets urban areas every community, some neighborhoods have struggled so you may have in one of a couple of streets over a lot of development and what we want to do is make sure that we keep homes affordable,” said Renaye Long, Strategic Communication Director for South Carolina State Housing.

North Charleston Mayor Reggie Burgess said the units are just one step in a larger vision to better North Charleston, and it’s all driven by the community.

“It all starts in the community. Everyone must get involved. If you look around here, we have people from different cultures, backgrounds, and faiths. We all want one thing: the betterment of our people who don’t have what normal people do,” said Mayor Burgess.

The developers told News 2 they plan to add several other affordable housing units in nearby neighborhoods within the following year.