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Residents and advocates urge council to keep $5 million annual affordable-housing funding as proposed budget cuts loom
Summary
Multiple residents and advocacy groups urged Greenville County Council to preserve or increase the county's affordable-housing allocation, currently proposed to be cut in the FY2026 budget. Speakers cited rising rents, homelessness among students, and a county housing study as reasons to maintain funding.
Multiple speakers at the Greenville County Council meeting on May 20 urged the council to preserve the county’s affordable-housing investment, telling members that the proposed FY2026 budget reduces prior commitments and would worsen evictions and homelessness.
What speakers said: Jeffrey Darling, a Simpsonville resident who volunteers with child-welfare and housing advocacy groups, told council the affordable-housing line item should remain at $3,000,000 per year and recalled that the fund had been created after community advocacy. “Cutting it down to $1,000,000 ignores the problem many working people face securing safe, affordable housing,” Darling said.
Lily Wood of the Gold Justice coalition asked the council to commit $10,000,000 annually for affordable housing, noting that the county’s own 2018 housing study identified a substantial shortfall. “Children cannot learn when they are changing schools multiple times a year because of evictions,” Wood said, linking housing stability to education and public safety.
Joanna Reese, a member of the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority Board and a small-business owner, told council that 47% of renters in Greenville County pay more than 30% of their income for housing and cited a 2020 audit that identified a need for 20,000 new affordable rentals by 2030.
Why it matters: Speakers from faith groups, neighborhood associations and local nonprofits said reductions to the affordable-housing fund — noted by several speakers as a drop from prior commitments to $1,000,000 per year in the proposed FY2026 budget — would worsen housing instability. Several speakers tied housing funding to workforce retention and school stability.
Council process and status: The county’s FY2026 budget was introduced for first reading and referred to the Committee of the Whole. No final appropriation decisions were made at the meeting; speakers urged council members to restore or increase the affordable-housing allocation during committee budget deliberations.
Ending: Advocates and residents said they will continue to press councilors as the FY2026 budget moves through committee, and asked the council to treat affordable housing as an essential service tied to workforce, schools and public safety.
