Gvl Housing Authority Dispels Rumors

Greenville Housing Authority Longs for Affordable Housing

As CEO of  The Greenville Housing Authority, Terril Bates is committed to dispelling longstanding notions of the role of the Housing Authority in the community.

She says rumors about fraud are overblown. “No one is leaving the program rich,” She says. “This just doesn’t happen.”

Bates says. “We want to be more available to the public.”

The Greenville Housing Authority isn’t new. It was created in 1938 by the Greenville City Council, which still appoints the Board of Commissioners.

Picture caption. Terril Bates is CEO of Greenville Housing Authorit

Bates and 55 full-time staff members are not city employees.

The authority has a cooperative relationship with the city but is funded solely by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Its mission is to provide affordable housing and housing assistance to low- and moderate-income veterans, senior citizens, people who are disabled, and families in Greenville and Greenville County.

HUD was once known for “housing projects,” most often high-rise apartment buildings in large cities until the 1980s and 1990s.

When HUD couldn’t keep up with maintenance, it allowed housing authorities to sell the properties and use tax incentives, investors, and other means to help fund safe and affordable housing, Bates says.

Most densely populated housing was demolished or rebuilt, often as mixed-income neighborhoods, she says.

“It's a constantly changing field. It's a never-ending learning experience,” says Bates, who took her first job at a housing authority 30 years ago. She’s been at the Greenville Housing Authority for 16 months. “I was semi-retired, and I came for six months,” she says.

Instead, she met with the board and commissioner and shared that she had begun projects that she wanted to continue. “That's why I'm here. I feel like the future for this Housing Authority is wonderful. I'm proud to be here.”

Federal rent subsidies are now primarily issued as housing choice vouchers through funding approved by Congress and allocated to HUD, then to housing authorities.

The Greenville Housing Authority subsidizes housing for approximately 3,000 households per month. Elderly and disabled individuals, veterans and low-income families utilize the subsidies in the private market to find safe and affordable housing. Vouchers can be used for any residence that offers reasonable rent and passes an inspection, Bates says.

“That’s 3,000 heads of households,” she says. “They have families. So, 10,000 to 15,000 people probably benefit from this program.”

The subsidy is paid by the Housing Authority directly to the property owner. Occupants pay 30% to 40% of their income – the difference between the actual rent and the subsidy.

“We pay about $30 million a year in rent to private owners,” Bates says.

“We’re not a charitable organization,” she says. “There is an exchange of service. The Housing Authority is an intermediary so that people who can't afford market-rate housing can pay rent in the private market.”

Bates says she tries to dispel misconceptions about people who use housing subsidies.

“When you get a coffee or doughnuts, people behind those counters … They're not bad people. But they don't make enough selling doughnuts and coffee to pay market rent. We love to see that lady smiling behind the register. We don't think about where she sleeps at night. Maybe she lives in her car,” Bates says.

“We almost criminalize poverty. But our service industry, our labor industry, in almost any city, lives in poverty.”

Greenville has abundant and desirable housing, Bates says.

“What we don't have is housing availability for the people we depend on. School bus drivers. Attendants in the school cafeteria. People cleaning hospitals or hotels. They have family. They have children.”

People may have Social Security, retirement funds, minimum-wage or part-time jobs. But they can’t afford rent in the Greenville market, she says.

For the housing choice voucher, 75% of new participants must be at or below 30% of the annual area median income. In Greenville in 2023, that’s just under $11,000 for an individual.

The average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Greenville is $1,500, according to apartments.com.

The waiting list for vouchers? “The waiting list is closed. We don't have funds to open a waiting list,” Bates says. All funds have been allocated.

The Greenville Housing Authority also administers Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, a federally funded program serving 230 homeless veterans, Bates says.

In a post on the Housing Authority’s website, Bates acknowledges the media reports about potential changes in federal funding. Bates says she has been in regular touch with HUD’s South Carolina office and has not received direction from any official source.

“As circumstances adjust, we need to work together with the board and our staff and our community to adjust with them and be as much a part of the solution as we can,” she says.

The Greenville Housing Authority manages about 1,000 units that were formerly public housing and owns almost 200 units. Developers often use project-based vouchers to make their budgets work, Bates says. Private developers enter into agreements with the Housing Authority and allocate a specific number of units for vouchers. The Housing Authority pays rent to the property owner. The voucher stays with the unit when a tenant leaves.

The Housing Authority also facilitates Move To Work, a program that encourages voucher-holders who are not elderly or disabled to improve their lives.

“We are getting to a place where we're assigning a time limit on rental assistance, based on a household's commitment to self-sufficiency,” Bates says. “The more commitment the family makes, the longer we support them. That's a big change from how housing services have been delivered.”

The Housing Authority connects with Goodwill, United Way, and organizations that help people meet their goals – whether it’s continuing education, parenting, or job skills.

“We don't tell people what to do,” Bates says. “Some people have a job, and it's minimum wage and part-time. Maybe they never thought they could find a better job. So, the goal is to connect them with skills they need to be hired full-time or find employment somewhere else,” Bates says.

Residents must tell the Housing Authority if their finances or household circumstances change.

“When we identify an intent to take advantage of the program, we take a termination action. That's our obligation,” Bates says.