Greenville Leader

The Greenville Homeless Alliance (GHA) is looking for community support to help reduce homelessness rates in Greenville County.

“Homelessness is solvable,” coordinator Susan McLarty told the Greenville Leader. “We have the people who want to solve it. The missing piece is the voice of residents in Greenville County.” 

The agency was founded in 2015 through a collaboration between 18 partnering organizations. That same year, over 75 institutions drafted the framework used to offer affordable housing resources to the city’s residents. 

Since then, numerous churches, businesses, local governments and philanthropies have joined to address the social issue in the area, according to McLarty.

In November of 2019, GHA unveiled its annual homelessness report, during which the Chair of County Council and Mayor of the City of Greenville jointly signed an order that officially declared November 15, 2019, as the Greenville Homeless Alliance Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Day. The organization is now directed by HUD, and currently covers 13 upstate counties.

Some of the issues Greenville Alliance shines a light on include the overpriced cost of housing and the drastic margin that has stretched out between working wages and financial assistance rates, a lack of reliable transportation, the cost of living and shortages in the workforce, McLarty said. 

“One challenge is that many people in emergency shelters get a job within walking distance and primarily in service sector jobs but when they move from where they can walk they cannot maintain their employment,” McLarty said. “Many of these jobs were deemed essential during the pandemic – but there is a mismatch in viewing housing as essential.”

Despite seeing improvements in housing resource offerings, McLarty explains that the number of families living on the street continues to rise. 

“We are also losing housing that is affordable and has low barriers for many areas whereas as a state we have significant challenges such as evictions, to name one, where we have the highest rate in the country,” she said.

According to McLarty, members of society can contribute by advocating for the protection of residents’ right to have a roof over thief heads, food on the table, a car to drive, clean clothes and access to medical care. 

“What we can do is realize that we have created a wonderful community and when we join our voices together for funding that allows people to have safe housing and still afford the other necessities in life, this is the next step in our transformation,” she said.