Faced with aging and deteriorating neighborhoods, the City of Greenville worked with residents to create a plan to rehabilitate properties and provide home ownership opportunities.
Thirteen areas of the City meet the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of low to moderate income, said Ginny Stroud, Greenville’s community development administrator.
Work began in the 1970s to revitalize these areas, but City officials did not see the long-term impact they wanted. In the late 1990s, the City developed its “special emphasis” plans – seven master plans designed to cover current problems
and also address residents’ ideas for the future of the neighborhood.
The neighborhoods are in various stages of revitalization. Work in the Viola Street neighborhood is the furthest
along: it’s expected to be wrapped up by June, Stroud said. Originally, there were 125 houses on Viola Street –
all crowded together and deteriorating, she said.
City officials asked residents how they wanted to shape their neighborhood. The residents’ top concern was having more home ownership opportunities, Stroud said.
So the City purchased property and demolished rebuilt units. When work is complete, there will be 86 single family
dwellings and eight rental units, Stroud said.
The houses have been sold to families with various income levels. The neighborhood will be made up of young families, singles, couples and the elderly, she said.
To create the mixed-income housing, the City partnered with both non-profit and for-profit developers. The non-profit developers work to create dwellings for the elderly and low-income families.
The City owned the properties and sold them to the developers through a competitive proposal process. In the proposal, the City required a certain percentage of the units be available at an affordable price, Stroud said. The City then helped by providing those homebuyers with down payment assistance, she added.
Buyers were recruited from both inside and outside of the neighborhood, as residents “requested new faces in the community,” Stroud said.
Throughout the process, that resident feedback has been key, Stroud said. “Community input is critical to the master plan,” she said. “We help the neighborhood develop the master plan, but (the neighborhoods) are really owned by the community.”
In all the neighborhoods, residents want homes rehabilitated and maintained. They are seeking increased homeownership opportunities and good quality renters, Stroud said.
In many neighborhoods, rentals make up 70 percent of the housing, with only 30 percent being owner-occupied,
Stroud said.
“Residents want to see that flipped, with more home ownership and with tenants who will contribute to the revitalization
of the neighborhood,” she said. “They feel homeownership is the one thing that brings stability.”
To afford homes, some residents need jobs, or better-paying work, Stroud said. That’s where the City’s job training and
placement program comes into play. The SHARE program recruits residents from the special emphasis neighborhoods to work out a job plan and help them to get training and interviews.
The City offers additional programs to help residents raise their income levels, overcome hurdles to home buying and
rehabilitate their homes. They also work with homeowners who need emergency assistance with issues such as leaky roofs or electrical problems, and offer aid to developing neighborhood associations.
“We work to address all the different issues where residents might have needs,” Stroud said. As the deteriorating neighborhoods improve, so too do the nearby areas. “With Viola Street, we’ve also seen surrounding neighborhoods improve. There’s been a rippling effect,” Stroud reports. And that is the goal, she adds. “We hope our investment will stimulate additional investment.”