Charleston mayor announces plan for regional rapid housing program for homeless (2024)

Mayor William Cogswell announced on May 22 plans to launch a regionwide effort to build short-term, transitional housing for those experiencing homelessness.

The announcement kicked off a daylong summit focused on homelessness and affordable housing, where those who work directly with the unhoused said the plan is just a temporary fix.

The Lowcountry Rapid Housing Program would provide individuals their own units for sleeping and hygiene, and access to services including identification assistance, mental health and addiction treatment, job training and help applying for more stable housing.

“This is an interim solution to a long-term problem," Cogswell said in the announcement. "We can’t solve affordability overnight, but we can give people a safe place to sleep and a helping hand."

Stacey Denaux, CEO of One 80 Place, the area's leading provider of homelessness services, said she opposes any plan that would take resources away from more permanent solutions.

"The answer to homelessness is housing,"Denaux said during the first of three panel discussions that followed the mayor's announcement.

Cogswell left after taking some questions from the audience and meeting with the media but did not stay for the panels.

"Talking about interim solutions, talking about more shelters, talking about things that are politically expedient and might hide homelessness, in my opinion, is wasting time and energy that we could be using towards creating permanent solutions," Denaux said.

The nonprofit is hoping to break ground on 70 affordable housing units this summer.

A 2024 point-in-time count logged 484 people experiencing homelessness on a recent night in Charleston and six surrounding counties, according to Denaux.

"We have the resources in this community to solve the problem," she said.

Cogswell emphasized a regional approach, saying he has the support of other area leaders. Summerville Mayor Russ Touchberry attended the summit alongside Cogswell, voicing his support. A spokesman for North Charleston Mayor Reggie Burgess said he "is in full support of this initiative," though Burgess did not attend the summit.

Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie, who also did not attend, called Cogswell'sinitiative"a workable plan," but added that only the "Town Council can authorize our participation."

Haynie said he would take the plan to the council with his backing.

Each locality would help fund the initiative, with Charleston leading the way, Cogswell said. However, he hasn't proposed a dollar figure about how much the program would cost. He said he hopes to float some "back of the envelope" figures this summer as surrounding governments are already starting budget discussions, but that could leave Charleston footing much of the bill as its budget is approved at the end of the year.

“This concept has proven effective in other cities," Cogswell said, plugging Columbia's Rapid Shelter program, which started in November 2022 with 50 one-room palletshelters. Cogswell's chief policy officer, Logan McVey, worked under Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann as the city's program rolled out.

Three months into Columbia's program, just four people hadmoved into permanent housing, according to a Post and Courier report. Columbia officials had originally planned to cap stays at 90 days, but the period lengthened as it was difficult to find affordable permanent housing. Cogswell is considering a similar 90- to 120-day cap for the program in Charleston, which has the highest median income in the state.

Joe Savage, the summit's keynote speaker and senior regional advisor to U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said that when considering these short-term solutions, communities should keep "respect and dignity" in mind in their design and execution. Temporary housing options should be somewhere anyone would want to live, he said, with air conditioning, heat and places to eat and go to the bathroom within the unit. Otherwise, they're no different than the tent encampments that governments tend to break up.

"The interim solution that the mayor is suggesting is great, but there is a day it should close and not reopen," Savage said. That means people are no longer losing their homes due to affordability issues or can quickly transition to another lower-priced option. But those options have to be there, he added.

In Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development pegs the median income at $73,625 for one person, $84,125 for a two-person family and higher amounts for larger families. These income standards are used to determine who qualifies for “workforce” apartments, low-income housing and state homebuyer assistance, all options that were discussed at Wednesday's summit.

A focal point for several speakers was changing the stigma surrounding homelessness and the solution to it: affordable housing. People often oppose this kind of development in their backyards citing unfounded fears of rising crime or decreasing property values,Savage said, when in fact the opposite is true.

"Homelessness is a housing problem. It's not caused by drugs or poverty or a moral failing," Savage said. "Housing is a human right, not something you earn."

He encouraged those attending the summit to continue to collaborate afterward and to focus on breaking down silos and supporting housing for all.