Is housing for all a possibility?

The ferocious housing inflation of recent years has made Charleston-area homeownership, or even an affordable apartment, hard for even average wage-earners to achieve. On top of that, the heavy pressures of gentrification are forcing people of less means out of their Charleston neighborhoods, often northward out of the city entirely.

'Do we want to be like Hilton Head, busing in people for the service-sector jobs?' asks Jeremy Browning of Habitat for Humanity. His organization produces a small number of affordable area units each year, as do local community-development organizations. A Lowcountry Housing Trust, just two years old, has made a start supporting a modest number of housing projects across the entire tri-county region.

But compared to need, the efforts are still small. Charleston Mayor Joe Riley refers to several successful projects in the city. Charleston was a pioneer among U.S. cities in insisting subsidized homes be indistinguishable from privately owned ones. But the process of maintaining sufficient housing is tough —'We got quadruple hernias trying to save the Immaculate Conception School building from going high-end — now it's a tax-credit subsidized project,' Riley suggests.

Other U.S. regions are experimenting with inclusionary zoning, reserving a small share of a development's new units for more-affordable units. But South Carolina law forbids forcing developers to comply, and resistance to voluntary agreement is high. The typical Habitat for Humanity homeowner earns in the mid-$20,000 range, Browning told us: 'Our houses blend into the community, don't stand out. But could we build in a new neighborhood? Are developers, or most towns, even interested in such a conversation? No.'

There's an easy political response in conservative South Carolina: Housing's a private deal, let the market decide. But encouraging income mixes across the region can have big payoffs. There's a mix of work force for employers. Neighborhoods are stronger and more crime-resistant. Schools are more likely to be more successful.

In today's politics, it's also fair to send a message of patriotism to communities that are leery of subsidized housing: Our returning Iraq war veterans have very limited financial resources. Are you making ready to provide affordable housing, an open door, for our returning heroes? And beyond that, isn't the America they're fighting for one that welcomes a cross-section of our people in every community?