Homelessness has a local cure, advocates say

Pastor Alfrieda Deas of North Charleston sits in her office at Bounce Back Incorporated and answers the twentieth phone call of the day. It’s somebody looking for a place to live. Over the past decade, Deas said she has seen a substantial increase in the need for affordable housing.
“I’ve been getting a lot of calls now from women with children and men with children who are displaced,” Deas said. “We have nothing to offer them.”

Like many services in Charleston, Bounce Back Inc. only accepts single men and women for transitional housing, Deas said. When families call, Deas often suggests they look into transitional family housing in Columbia. But she also recognizes most people don’t have the means to relocate.

Deas

“The sad thing is, I just have to tell the families, ‘I’m so sorry,’ ” Deas said. “I usually direct them to the Red Cross or Salvation Army to see if they can get a bus ticket out of Charleston.”

A point-in-time survey conducted by the Lowcountry Continuum of Care (LCC) on the night of Jan. 24, 2024, found that 4,532 people were served by the organizations that comprise the LCC.

It also found 285 people were unsheltered in the Charleston region and 199 people were in a shelter.

Changes over time

When Deas founded the North Charleston nonprofit in 2007, she remembers getting about five calls a day. Now, she’s seeing an increase in calls coming from families and people living with severe mental illness who get kicked out of their housing.

In recent years, Bounce Back has stopped taking in people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia because it became a detriment to the community, Deas said.

The clients at Bounce Back Inc. can stay in transitional housing until they find permanent housing. Deas has clients pay a minimum rate based on their income and gives unemployed clients two weeks to find a job.

“The program is designed to support self-sufficiency so the people here never have to cross homelessness again,” Deas said.

Unfortunately, transitional housing is only a short-term solution for homelessness, Deas said. But, she believes Charleston has the resources to make more affordable housing.

“I’ve been meeting with the cities of Charleston and North Charleston, and mayors over the years,” Deas said. “They have a good heart toward bringing awareness and studying homelessness. But that money needs to be redirected toward getting homes for the homeless.”

Instead of creating more shelters or transitional housing, Deas said the mayors’ offices can put resources into low-income and affordable housing.

“I don’t understand how they have all this money and can’t open one building,” Deas said. “They just have to pay to get the building. We’ll show you how to do it.”

How the issue is being tackled

Stacey Denaux, CEO of One80 Place in Charleston, said the city has the resources it needs to end homelessness.

“It has not reached a point where we can’t solve the problem if we really coordinate and target our resources,” she said. For Denaux, this means getting local organizations and municipalities to join the Lowcountry Continuum of Care, the network of service providers supports those who are homeless and at risk of homelessness.

Currently, the City of Charleston Housing Authority provides support for 1,382 public housing households located throughout the city and more than 1,500 Housing Choice Voucher Program participants living in private accommodations.

“It’s really taking the resources [the city currently has] and working within the system that exists,” she said.

For example, Charleston issued a $20 million affordable housing bond in 2021 to help leverage additional private funding to make some significant strides in increasing the supply of affordable housing.

On the streets

Denaux said she is optimistic the city will begin working toward ending homelessness, instead of managing it as it has done in the past.

Denaux noted that in Charleston, people living on the streets are frequently displaced or arrested by law enforcement officers. It’s a practice she believes further marginalizes the homeless population.

“Those ordinances make it difficult to actually end homelessness,” she said. “We’re optimistic that under Mayor [William] Cogswell there’s a willingness to work within the homeless response system that already exists.”

In 2016, then-Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg created the Homeless to Hope Fund to assist homeless individuals and families in their transition to permanent housing through service providers in Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Summerville and North Charleston. The fund still helps people with emergency housing, utility deposits, security deposits, first month’s rent and assistance in obtaining identification necessary to secure a lease.

Earlier this year, Cogswell announced the Low Country Rapid Housing Program. The transitional housing program would provide people a place to sleep, shower, get treatment and prepare for long-term stable housing.

Cogswell reportedly drew inspiration to adopt the program from a project previously implemented by Columbia almost a year ago.

It was last reported the Rapid Shelter in Columbia had 50 pods and was filled to capacity. In April officials said at least 34 people had found permanent housing through the program. Nearly 50 residents found jobs and more than 40 obtained health insurance.

Critics of Columbia’s model wondered whether these results prove the program can be successful in Charleston. Denaux said the new program in Charleston could be successful if it is connected to LCC’s existing housing response.

“That model has not been proven successful,” she said. “I don’t think it’s been around long enough to have any real data that shows any large-scale outcomes.”

When asked to speak about the program and future plans to address homelessness in Charleston, Cogswell’s office declined an interview with the Charleston City Paper.

Affordable housing won’t solve the problem alone

Meanwhile, Brandon Lilienthal, the homeless coordinator for North Charleston, said homeless families pay an average of $400 to $500 a week to stay in hotels.

“These families are working just to keep a roof over their heads because they can’t save,” he said.

Deas also said she has seen more people living in motels just to stay off the streets. Every month, Deas and other volunteers at Bounce Back deliver toiletries and clothing to the homeless.

Lately, the organization also started giving resources to people living in motels. She said motel guests are paying two times the rate of what her clients pay to live in transitional housing.

“Sometimes I get there and people say, ‘Oh, we’re so glad you came. We haven’t eaten in two days because I had to pay for my room tonight.’ ”

Staying in hotels is one form of low-income housing for some individuals. While low-income housing exists in Charleston, the demand is greater than what’s currently available.

Lilienthal said affordable housing isn’t accessible for everyone, particularly those on fixed incomes.

He said one of the populations facing homelessness at an increasing rate is seniors. Some only receive Social Security benefits that amount to about $900 a month. Lilienthal said that isn’t always enough to pay for stable housing.

“The individuals that are chronically homeless can’t even afford affordable housing,” he said. “We need more low-income housing.”

Current numbers are informing future plans

Denaux said although the data collected from the LCC does not show exponential growth in homelessness across Charleston, the issue is becoming more visible.

One80 Place serves roughly 850 people on a given day. Its Housing First and Rapid Re-Housing practices prioritize helping individuals find permanent homes.

“We work to remove as many barriers as possible,” Denaux said. “And for the barriers we cannot eliminate we help them navigate the systems that created those barriers so they can ultimately be housed.”

This summer, the organization will break ground on 70 units of affordable housing and a family shelter at 573 Meeting St. She said the 70 units of housing will be for people referred by the LCC, the network that spans seven counties. She said most of the providers who offer services for the homeless in Charleston are part of the network.

“I believe this is solvable,” Denaux said. “We have to really be focused on permanent outcomes, not temporary solutions — not a shelter or shed but truly a place that any of us would be willing to live in.”

Deas said she also believes homelessness in Charleston can improve. But, she recognizes how complex the problem is and said it’s going to take more money and resources to combat the issue.

“I don’t see anything happening until government officials step up and take responsibility to care for the less fortunate,” she said.