$12M investment fuels affordable housing for seniors in Greenville’s Southernside

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A $12 million check will go toward a 147-unit affordable senior housing development in Greenville’s Southernside neighborhood.

The Southernside Senior Living development is the first of several affordable and workforce housing developments to be funded under a funding partnership between the Greenville Housing Fund, the city of Greenville and Truist Bank, according to a news release.

Truist Bank approved the $12 million loan to Greenville Housing Fund to accelerate affordable housing projects and establish a reserve fund as part of an ongoing contribution agreement approved by the Greenville City Council last month, the release said. This capital will be invested in the production of 549 affordable rental units at three new Greenville developments, all of which are expected to break ground within the next year. In addition to Southernside Senior Living, the Riley at Overbrook on Lowndes Hill Road and Gateway at the Green near Woodruff Road will offer rental units at multiple affordable price points, the release said.

Greenville Housing Fund President and CEO Bryan Brown calls the partnership “a bold and innovative approach to local investment and support for affordable housing,” and praises its flexibility in stimulating development of affordable, workforce and mixed-income housing, despite the challenges posed by the current high-interest-rate environment, the release said.

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The investment will also support Greenville Housing Fund’s Neighborhood Strategy, promoting affordable infill development in the city’s “Special Emphasis Neighborhoods” near downtown, as well as the nonprofit’s new Community Land Trust, modeled to create and preserve affordable homeownership opportunities across Greenville, the release said.

“Greenville is investing more in affordable housing than any other city in South Carolina, all without a tax increase,” said Greenville Mayor Knox White. “Innovation, dedication and successful public-private partnerships will help us achieve our affordable housing goals. The city donated eight acres of land around Unity Park with the specific purpose of preserving and creating affordable housing. It’s fantastic to see projects realized on those sites.”

Southernside Neighborhoods in Action leader Mary Duckett said the Southernside Senior Living development is an example that will “allow longtime residents to remain or former residents to return to the place that they and generations of their families have called home,” according to the release.       

The Greenville Housing Fund is a nonprofit organization dedicated to championing a future of thriving and affordable neighborhoods across Greenville’s diverse communities. In the five years since its inception, the organization has invested more than $15 million and leveraged $230 million in creating or preserving more than 1,330 units of housing in Greenville County, many affordable to households living on as little as 20% of area median income.

More information is available online.