Nearly a third of Greenville County renters are cost stressed

With buses scant, gentrification is pushing many away from services

Spanish-speaking population has surged

Population changes and rising costs challenge trust in neighbors, institutions

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is part of an occasional series of stories The Greenville News is publishing on affordable housing in Greenville.

This story has been updated to clarify the difference between United Way's partner agencies and other charitable and governmental entities in the downtown Greenville area.

Life for a significant portion of Greenville area residents is getting harder, a new study shows, and the services that help them are getting geographically harder to access.

The findings of the study, commissioned by the United Way of Greenville County in partnership with Furman University, are troubling. The study shows, among other things:

► an increase in residents burdened by rent that costs more than 35% of their income (from roughly a quarter of county residents to nearly a third),

► housing prices in traditionally affordable neighborhoods like Nicholtown, Green Avenue, West Greenville, Monaghan and Judson skyrocketing more than 140% (and more than 200% in the Green Avenue area),

► more people overall living in poverty (from 10.5% in 1999 to 13.5% in 2017) and high-poverty areas generally shifting west and south of Greenville city limits,

► a 5.3% drop in real median income between 1999 and 2016,

► and all of this is happening despite a 15-point increase in graduation rates (from 72% to 87%)

For service providers, gentrification trends have required a rethink as services that for decades have centered around the city of Greenville are increasingly harder for low-income residents to access, said Deborah McKetty, former president and CEO of CommunityWorks and currently is United Way vice president for community impact.

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About 40% of United Way's partnering service providers, she said, are centralized around Greenville. Governmental services such as Family Court and the public health department as well as charitable and wellness organizations such as the Salvation Army and Daily Bread Ministries are also located near downtown.

"If people are now moving out to other parts of the county, how are we going to serve those folks?" McKetty said. "How are we going to get services to them?"

Service providers might consider investing more in technology, providing remote access, or sending out mobile units or things where we can service around the county, she said.

"I don’t even know what that begins to look like yet, but it’s going to be different way of doing business for us," she said.

A population on the move

The Furman/United Way study, a multi-part survey and data analysis that started in 2017 and concluded in recent weeks, shows that it is the forces of rising rents and housing costs in the city of Greenville that are pushing low-income people outward, especially to the west side of town and Piedmont.

Buses run up and down White Horse Road, but for those who live farther out and have limited access to a vehicle, the consequences can be extreme.

Want to read the official study summary? Find it at this link: http://inclusivegvl.org The 88-page community focus group report is here.

Adrienne Atkinson of the Belle Meade community off U.S. 25 outside Greenville said she has a neighbor who must take an Uber every day to the nearest bus stop. This neighbor does not have a car, Atkinson said, but has a good job.

"It's so far, she can't walk," Atkinson said. "She's a native of New York, so this was flabbergasting to her. She's used to how things work in the city."

The United Way/Furman study is rich in detail, with dozens of census-tract maps showing indicators such as poverty, housing vacancy rates, access to adequate heating, the presence of children, and diversity. Researchers also interviewed 82 people in Greenville County to describe their neighbors, their housing costs, their access to good jobs and training, their housing costs and how they get around.

Researchers provided quotes from those discussions, but declined a Greenville News request to identify and interview survey participants for this story.

What researchers came away with was five major trends:

Nearly a third of Greenville County renters are cost stressed

Residents across the county, especially those who rent, struggle to afford housing, the study found. This comes down to money, with real median income by household declining 5.3% between 1990 and 2016, and costs, with rent increasing nearly 24% across all census tracts in the county.

"It makes sense in the context of the national dialogue over income inequality," said Furman's Mike Winiski, who helped create the study and is executive director for community-engaged learning. "We are seeing that in Greenville, too."

Those spending more than 35% of their household income on rent (housing "stressed") has increased from a quarter of the county to nearly a third. Hardest hit: the Brandon/Judson/Sterling (67% stressed) area, Berea (62% stressed) and the City View/Park Place/Poe Mill area (59% stressed).

► Solutions: The study recommends a range of strategies to keep costs down: rent control, rent assistance, property tax caps, increasing scrutiny of landlords to take care of properties and building more affordable housing construction, with in-fill and high density developments.

With buses scant, gentrification is pushing many away from jobs, services

While access to transportation has improved since 1990, in terms of people having a car, funding for public transportation remains far lower than the comparative need for it, the study found.

Also, with the low-income population moving because of gentrification, affordable housing options will likely soon exist only outside GreenLink's bus routes. This includes affordable areas like White Horse Road, where rents have shot up in the last four years.

"The White Horse corridor has some of the most affordable houses in the county, and that’s based on the price per square foot, but those are also starting to push up because people are moving more and more out that way because of the affordability, so that’s actually driving prices up," said Kelley Lear, the United Way's director of marketing and communications.

A significant portion of the county — a fifth of households in 10% of the county's census tracts — have no access to a vehicle, the study. One business owner interviewed for the study said some employees can't work on Sundays because the buses don't run. Another said they were losing customers in the Brandon Mill area because many of their regulars who had been getting there by foot are moving out.

► Solutions: The study repeats the long-standing view from the business and health/wellness communities that funding for GreenLink should be increased. The study also suggests working with businesses to come up with alternative transportation networks.

Spanish-speaking population has surged

Greenville County is far more diverse now than it was in 1990, with a startling 1,284% increase in its Hispanic/Latino population alone (a quarter of all growth in the county can be attributed to this part of the population).

► Recommendations: The study's authors recommend that community organizers come up with partnerships and strategies to boost cultural understanding and to build trust and relationships among established and new groups.

Population changes and rising costs challenge trust in neighbors, institutions

The study's authors picked up on a declining level of trust among neighbors and in the community's business and government institutions. "As communities experience change, trust can be challenged or strengthened," the study says. "Residents cite instances of both."

Greenville County resident Jalen Elrod told The Greenville News he grew up in West Greenville and was struck by how odd its newest appellation, "The Village," sounded. His family's connection to the community dates to the 1920s. Elrod said he would like to move back to West Greenville but can't afford it because of rising rents.

"The first time I heard someone say ('The Village') was in 2016," Elrod said. "He wanted to know if I wanted to meet him for lunch in 'The Village.' I had no idea what he was talking about."

Residents in multiple downtown neighborhoods have also expressed deep distrust in city and county government in recent weeks over the redevelopment of County Square at the northern edge of the Haynie-Sirrine, a distressed traditionally black community. The chief concern: communication about the look and feel of new buildings as well as rising housing costs brought on by the luxury condos planned for the site.

► Solutions: The study's authors said the best way to build trust is to develop mixed-income housing that invites people from across the socioeconomic spectrum to live together. They also suggest more community-level networking events and training to mitigate racial tensions. Finally, they urge more transparency in local government.

County is more educated but workers need more training

Finally, the study found that across the county, more people are finishing high school. But with a decline in real wages, workers need access to training to get higher-paying jobs.

► Solutions: The study's authors suggest more education around budgeting and managing credit/debt; they also suggest more alternative entrepreneurial support in low-income communities.

Want to read more?

Two years in the making, this 88-page qualitative study authored by a group of Furman University faculty and students in partnership with the United Way of Greenville County closely examines the challenges facing 82 Greenville County residents in the wake of increasing gentrification. It categorizes nine communities in the county by their degree of gentrification (non-existent, at risk, ongoing or advanced) and lists problems and solutions unique to each.

Greenville News reporter Angelia Davis contributed to this story.