Consultants present draft housing goals to Charleston City committee, warn subsidies and policy changes will be needed

At a Community Development Committee meeting, a consultant from Bloomberg Associates presented updated analyses and a set of draft housing goals for the City of Charleston, saying the city will need sizable subsidies, incentives and policy changes to meet demand.

"I think the top line goal, of course, is to create 3,500 more affordable or attainable homes," the Bloomberg consultant said, and outlined a six-part package that also calls for building at least 7,500 new homes, raising the homeowner-price target to about $400,000 (from the earlier $300,000 figure), catalyzing $800 million in investment, reducing homelessness by 25% and stabilizing roughly 1,000 households.

Why it matters: the consultant told the committee that multiple gap analyses — the city’s 2021 study, county work and Bloomberg’s own assessment — show the largest shortages of renter-affordable units are concentrated at the lowest income bands (below 30% and below 50% of area median income). He said the apparent easing of some gaps in city statistics mainly reflects lower-income households moving out of the city rather than an expansion of affordable supply.

The consultant summarized a development-feasibility study that combined building typologies (high-rise, mid-rise podium,…