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Historical Overview
In 1937, the United States Congress passed the United States Housing Act
to provide decent homes for low-income families.
The Greenville Redevelopment Commission and City Council
established the Greenville Housing Authority (GHA) in 1961.
Housing Authorities are unique entities established by a
combination of federal, state and local actions.
While the Mayor appoints the seven members of the GHA’s Board of
Commissioners, the GHA is a quasi-government agency and a state chartered
corporation. One Commissioner is a
GHA resident who represents the families, seniors, and disabled persons
who reside in public housing. The Board of Commissioners appoints an
Executive Director to lead the GHA workforce of more than 50 employees in
various executive, administrative and craft occupations.
The total budget for the GHA is over 4 million dollars.
Departments within the GHA include: Public Housing Operations,
Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), Neighborhood Services, Maintenance, and
Finance.
In 1962, the GHA opened Kearney Park, the
City’s first low-income housing development which has a 160 families.
East Meadowbrook (65 units), West Meadowbrook (40 units) Moyewood (228 units), and Hopkins Park (111
units) followed closely and were all completed by early 1980.
The GHA has grown to include 7 developments located in many and
different Greenville neighborhoods, with over 714 units of public housing
serving the very low-income families, seniors and disabled residents of
Greenville. Since the 1980
inception of the Section 8 program, the number of low-income families
whose rents are subsidized for privately owned housing has risen to 654
families with an additional 100 served through other federally funded
programs.
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