Lowcountry organization finds creative solution to affordable housing crisis

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – A grassroots organization suitable here in the Lowcountry is attempting a unique answer to the inexpensive housing challenge.

CoLife pairs home owners with people hunting for a location to stay. The group will take into consideration personality characteristics, lifestyles, pet peeves, and extra to locate the fantastic match.

Founder Derek Snook states although hundreds of individuals in Charleston County just cannot manage properties, the problem is fewer about the have to have for beds, and additional about belief and human relationship:

“I imagine the wonderful thing about CoLife is that it’s truly about a bet… it’s a bet on the human heart… that there are genuinely superior persons.”

The City of Charleston has tried using various remedies, such as opening complexes at subsidized premiums, setting up plans to get people today again on their feet, and strategizing a 10-year-program known as the the “Come Household Task,” but Deputy Director of Housing and Neighborhood Improvement Mat Ojala states the concern of homelessness persists:

“We have to have support at all concentrations of governing administration, guidance from non-public industry, and guidance from the community to appear together and obtain these solutions…the reasonably priced housing issue in the Town of Charleston, is a massive one, and we genuinely have to have any one and everybody to be involved to support people today discover methods that assist men and women access housing that is very affordable for their funds.”

And that is exactly where CoLife arrives in. Snook established the group in 2019 with the purpose of correcting the disaster with assets that are by now on hand:

“Co daily life matches the large demand for attainable housing — so nurses, teachers, hospitality and retail personnel, metropolis employees, graduate college students — to the significant supply of 24 million Us residents nationwide who stay on your own, in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathtub residence, and are the operator of that property. We are the platform that connects people two.”

Snook says that in his knowledge, the housing disaster has snowballed because People in america have fundamentally changed the way they live:

“Currently nowadays, 30,000 folks dwell on the peninsula. In the 1950’s, there was someplace concerning 70 and 90,000 people that lived on the peninsula…three of the homes on Colonial Lake were being boarding homes, a boarding home is just a dwelling where the owner life, and they lease rooms in their house.”
Snook is intimately knowledgeable of the lack of attainable housing in Charleston, “I determined to voluntarily transfer into a homeless shelter. And I lived there for a yr.”

When there, he learned that the problem is fewer about math around the selection of beds necessary, and additional about like: 

“I satisfied a guy named David. David was homeless, he missing his wife, he dropped his baby, and I asked him, David what are people that are living in these kinds of situations definitely want? And I predicted him to notify me the extended listing of items that I believed that I needed…and so I was shocked when he said Derek, we have to have the exact issue that every person wants.”

That point that Derek is speaking about is hope, and men and women across Charleston are listening to his contact for compassion. Aspect two of this story airs this coming Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., when we get a firsthand seem at how CoLife is functioning for one Lowcountry home owner.