Richland County needs more affordable housing. Officials look to vacant homes
Facing a need for more affordable housing, Richland County is making plans to rehabilitate derelict homes and sell them at a capped price based on the income of the buyer.
The county plans to partner with the Columbia Housing Authority, which owns a number of vacant single family homes, to provide at least $400,000 in funding to repair four homes with the goal of selling them to lower income buyers.
“It’s a small start, but it is a start,” Councilwoman Gretchen Cooper said at a Tuesday afternoon meeting of the county’s affordable housing committee. The four homes were selected from a longer list of options and county officials agreed at the meeting to continue looking for other funding sources to continue the partnership past the four selected.
The five-person panel of council members tasked with addressing the county’s need for affordable housing voted Tuesday to move forward with the partnership, but it’ll need final approval from the full county council at a later meeting. It’s unclear if approval will come at the next regularly scheduled meeting on March 3 as an agenda for that meeting hasn’t been posted yet.
The plan adds to the county’s existing homeownership assistance program, which provides help with down payment and closing costs to individuals that make under a certain income. County officials hope it’ll mean more housing stock that’s attainable to people participating in the program.
“We have 20 households who have gone through the process, who’ve received their letters that say, ‘You’ve been approved. Find a house, let’s get to closing.’ But the issue, for us, is that we’ve not gotten anyone to closing since July because the inventory is not there,” said Callison Richardson, grants and community development division manager for the county, at the Tuesday afternoon committee meeting.
If approved by county council, the partnership would mean that the four single-family homes would be fixed up and sold at a lower rate than market value to people earning up to 120% of the average median income for the county. The total sale price for each home would vary for different units, but largely be based on the buyer’s income. The homes would also include a minimum 20-year affordability clause, meaning the sales price or income range could be restricted if the house is resold.
The county currently does not own the homes, but the housing authority would transfer ownership to the county under the partnership. The addresses of the homes were not listed in county documents because some of the homes could be currently occupied, County Administrator Leonardo Brown told the committee Tuesday.
The median home price in Richland County is $275,000, according to market data from Realtor.com. The median household income was just shy of $66,000 in 2024, according to Census data.
“This just seems so perfect in so many ways, in that it’s sustainable and can hopefully get a lot of people not only into homes, but also remove some of the blight that’s in some of these neighborhoods, too,” Councilwoman Allison Terracio said.
The housing authority has been shifting its focus towards single-family homes, rather than just apartment complexes, since the early 2000s, according to its website. Over the last two decades, it’s set up more than 140 people to buy homes through its housing choice voucher, its website said.
The housing authority, funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, has circled around 50 of their homes that can be disposed of to the county and converted into affordable housing. Around 43 of the selected homes need repairs, while seven need to be demolished to make room for new construction, according to the county.
The county’s plans to continue partnership with the housing authority could mean more of those homes get converted to affordable housing. County officials discussed various funding methods for the project, including federal dollars and partnerships with nonprofits, but did not come to a set conclusion other than to continue its current partnership with the housing authority.
