After more than a year of debate over Charleston County’s role in addressing affordable housing, County Council agreed to dedicate $20 million to the effort.
The money will come out of $80 million the county is receiving in American Rescue Plan Act funding from the federal government.
It is by far the largest of several housing-related initiatives the county has recently undertaken amid an affordable housing crisis driven by soaring rents and home prices.
“Obviously it’s a conversation we’ve continued to have,” said Councilman Rob Wehrman, who proposed the $20 million fund. “We’ve got this ARPA money and I think we would be doing a disservice if we didn’t use it to address these issues.”
The county hasn’t decided exactly how the millions would be spent, but setting aside a quarter of the county’s ARPA funding for a housing fund is a major step. The amount of money is considerable,