Greenville City Council is urging developers to convert hotel and motel space left vacant by the pandemic's economic fallout to affordable housing.
The incentive plan approved yesterday will allow zoning changes for residential use in return for a pledge to maintain a percentage of space as owner-occupied affordable housing.
The plan defines that as the a rental rate less than thirty percent of the income of families living at or below eighty percent of the Greenville area's median. That's $53,200 dollars a year for a family of four.
Housing advocates say there's an immediate demand for fifteen thousand units in that bracket.
A spokesperson for the Greenville Housing Fund calls it a win-win for the renters and the hotels and motels, some of them brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the economic downturn and pandemic travel restrictions.