Greenville County Council could revise its affordable housing policy. After six tax incentives for developers were created in 2022, council members said it could use some “recalibrating.”
Current policy
As the policy stands now, developers get tax incentives (or cuts) if their project includes 20% of affordable housing for people making a mix of 80%, 60%, and 40% of the area median income or AMI. For reference, Greenville County’s AMI for 2021 was ~$77,000, meaning you’d have to earn less than 80% of that to qualify.
If 20% of the housing is affordable, developers get a 50% cut. If 100% of the housing is affordable, developers get a 70% cut.
Potential new policy
The new, revised policy would split into two incentive programs: one for affordable housing + another for workforce housing. The workforce housing policy would apply to projects with affordable housing units at 60-120% AMI, instead of the current 40-80%.
Developers would receive a 20% tax break for 20% affordable workforce units + up to a 50% tax break for 100% affordable workforce units.
The policy would also be “less stringent,” and the level of tax incentive would be left up to County Council on a project-by-project basis.
