By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

George Saldana is changing the face of public housing in North Charleston; a change he says is long overdue.

When public housing was introduced to the nation in 1937, its purpose was to provide temporary, government-subsidized shelter to struggling, low-income families until they could afford their own homes, says Saldana, executive director of the North Charleston Housing Authority.

But in the early 1960s, temporary somehow morphed into permanent, and public housing communities became refuges for generation after generation of welfare families, Saldana says. Children born in public housing grew up and begat public housing children.

“We need to break that cycle,” says Saldana. Public housing should return to its original purpose. More important, he says he wants to see North Charleston’s poorer residents move from government assistance to self-reliance and home ownership, a shift Saldana says would increase North Charleston’s tax base dramatically and help propel the city economically upward.

Familiar Territory

Saldana is no stranger to public housing. He grew up in a public housing development in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“When I was growing up, public housing was a last resort,” he recalls, explaining public assistance was where people turned after losing employment. “It helped my mother get back on her feet and get a job.”

That job enabled his mother to move out of the government-subsidized housing development and into her own house. His mother’s accomplishment and his experience growing up in public housing continue to motivate Saldana to help drive public housing residents toward home ownership. Although Saldana majored in engineering at South Carolina State University, it was his personal public housing experiences led him to the housing profession.

During the 1990s, Saldana worked for the housing authority in Fort Myers, Fla., before joining the North Charleston Housing Authority in 2000.

The first North Charleston public housing development Saldana turned toward home ownership was Oak Leaf Estates in 2002. Thanks to a HUD grant, most of the 64-unit complex has been renovated. The entire complex is slated for completion by December, says Saldana. Twenty-three former public-housing families are leasing homes in Oak Leaf Estates with an option to buy.

Then came North Park Village, a 524-unit public housing community near the former Navy base. The 66-acre site looked more like combination prison-military barracks than a residential neighborhood. A barbed wire fence surrounded drab, redbrick, 60-year-old buildings. The development’s median household income was about $8,000 a year.

In order to know the residents and understand their needs, Saldana lived in North Park Village for a year.

“I wanted to see how we were doing after five o’clock, when the phones stop ringing,” he says, referring to the housing authority and how well it served the residents.

Breaking the cycle

Saldana and his staff began breaking the public housing cycle in 2003 with demolition plans for North Park Village.

The North Charleston Housing Authority relocated North Park Village’s nearly 500 families to other housing developments in the city and in October 2003 began demolishing North Park Village. Demolition was completed this past March.

What will rise on the site is Horizon Village, a $98 million, 501-unit residential development that will be a mix of affordable apartments, 130 houses—some priced at market value—for home ownership, plus dwellings for the elderly. Only 136 units will be public housing.

Former residents of North Park Village can only live in Horizon Village if they enroll in educational and vocational programs that help them land jobs enabling them to become self-sufficent.

Overcoming Misconceptions

“The problem with affordable housing is that everybody wants it but not in their backyard,” Saldana says.

Affordable housing bears a stigma of crime, drugs and poverty, despite evidence to the contrary, he says.

Saldana’s home ownership intentions for North Charleston match Mayor Keith Summey’s, who wants to see the city’s housing scene shift from primarily renters to homeowners.

In 2001, about 60% of the city’s residents were apartment renters while 40% were homeowners.

Today, about 46% of North Charleston residents own their homes, Saldana says.

Home ownership is crucial to the city’s economic development, and affordable housing is crucial to home ownership, Saldana emphasizes.

“If we don’t have the affordable housing issue settled, we won’t attract more business to North Charleston,” he says.

Dennis Quick is senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@crbj.com.

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