CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) — On Friday, Charleston County Council discussed ways to preserve existing affordable housing, and plan for new affordable housing developments in the county.

Council members viewed a presentation about the Housing Our Future Plan before discussing the plan, and taking a vote.

“We’ve gone through our Housing Our Future Plan since late last year,” Charleston County Council’s Special Housing Committee Chair Jenny Costa Honeycutt said, “and it’s gone through the public process, gotten a lot of feedback. And it was now time for County Council to sit down and adopt that plan and determine strategically how we’re going to move forward.”

Honeycutt says the Housing Our Future Plan May play a vital role in solving the housing crisis she says the area is currently facing.

“It’s a supply and demand issue,” Honeycutt said, “and there’s hope on the horizon.”

That hope was only strengthened after council talked through the detailed plan and voted to identify the top two components they’d like to learn more about.

“We then directed staff to bring us back recommendations on how to actually implement those,” Honeycutt said. “So, when we talk about an affordable housing trust fund, which has gotten a lot of attention and was our top priority, what do we mean? What does that look like?”

Honeycutt says council will continue being strategic moving forward and she’s confident adopting this plan is a great start toward making a lasting impact on housing in the Lowcountry.

“This was a bold opportunity to lead on the issue of housing in our community,” she said. “We have amazing stakeholders in various industry sectors and groups that have been pushing for this for a few years now.”

Officials say they eventually anticipate building more than 30,000 affordable housing units in the Lowcountry.