Background
The City adopted The Charleston Homeownership Initiative Redevelopment Plan in December of 2000, creating the Homeownership Initiative (HI) program. In response to the imbalance between household incomes and housing costs in downtown Charleston, Mayor Riley and the City Council challenged city staff to develop a program that:
- Provided housing affordable to persons of low- and moderate-incomes
- Revitalized some of the City's most distressed neighborhoods
- Built capacity among the local non-profit organizations