For folks who could use help paying Fort Mill prices, this chance doesn’t come often.

The last time it happened, a run on the housing authority office in Fort Mill required police coming in to direct traffic.

There won’t be so big a crowd on the doorstep this time, but there could be even more people.

The Offices of Affordable Housing will open its Housing Choice Voucher, or Section 8, program on April 17. Applicants can submit online at hafmsc.com. The opening lasts one week. It’s the first since mid-2011.

“It's not common at most housing authorities, because people apply for it as soon as it’s open,” said Connie Howard, executive director.

The Section 8 program doesn’t even have current vouchers available. People will be applying for them to use as they come open, likely a year or more in the future.

“There is nothing open today,” Howard said. “Our waiting list is getting shorter. That's the reason we're opening it up.”

Last time they opened an application period, it lasted a day. Staff arrived to 640 people waiting.

“That's here in Fort Mill, in front of our office,” Howard said. “I'm thinking probably double that (this time), plus it’s going to be open for a week.”

Applicants this time will go into a lottery system so they “don’t have to log in at midnight to make sure they’re first,” she said. There were loads of applicants last time, but only from so far away since it was in-person and just for a day. Six years later the idea is convenience and fairness, but spreading out the open period and putting it online could mean a wider audience.

“All over,” Howard said of applicants last time. “They were all over. But it was only one day. To me that kind of limits it on people coming from Florida, Georgia or whatever. Doing it online we might get someone from Hawaii.”

The popularity of income-based housing programs in Fort Mill shouldn’t come as a surprise to everyone else here, amid record numbers of new home sales and permits in recent years. The same draws that bring traditional residents bring income-assisted ones.

“It's the neighborhood,” Howard said. “It's Fort Mill overall, and the neighborhood. Yes, I would prefer my child go to a Fort Mill school instead of a Charlotte school.”

Income-based housing

Housing Authority of Fort Mill, Fort Mill Housing Services and Community Housing, Inc. make up Offices of Affordable Housing. The group has 141 apartments in Nature Trail Crossing, Anderson Place and Harrison Hills. It developed Avery Lakes near the Anne Springs Close Greenway.

The federally funded group doesn’t do true public housing anymore. Varying programs offer varying levels of assistance. The Section 8 program allows residents to secure their own home or apartment, and a voucher helps with rent. Qualifiers still have to pay 30 percent of their income minus medical, childcare and related deductions. Vouchers from the local office work for the Fort Mill, Tega Cay and Indian Land areas.

There are 154 vouchers from U.S. Housing and Urban Development. Applicants have to pass a criminal background check, can’t owe other housing authorities and can’t earn more than 50 percent of the median household income for York County. Residents who receive the vouchers tend to stay on for a while. But deaths, relocation, evictions or disqualifications for the program, happen.

Someone is always waiting.

“When a voucher becomes open, we're able to fill it,” Howard said.

Last April, three formerly low-income apartment buildings in Fort Mill with a combined 144 units were sold to New Jersey-based Friedlam Properties. The buildings began a transition toward typical market prices, putting the pinch to some renters on income-assisted programs. Within months some residents were leaving or making plans, should they have to leave.

One of the earliest residents of those apartments, Renee Lewis, was one of the first out, leaving to live elsewhere in Fort Mill with family.

“There’s not enough public housing in Fort Mill to support 150 families,” she said during the move.

The town is cranking up a new comprehensive plan update now. It will take most of the year, reviewing and tweaking items from zoning and land use to economic growth and public service needs.

“The diversity and availability of housing options are topics that are discussion items covered in all comprehensive plans,” said Mayor Guynn Savage.

“We will evaluate current challenges and opportunities in the plan's housing element. Topics include but are not limited to senior, affordable and workforce housing, market trends, mixed use and economic development.”

Still, most of the main decisions impacting Section 8 or related housing falls outside the scope of town efforts.

“In regards to low-income housing, while it is a topic for discussion it is usually provided by federal programs,” Savage said.

A growing need

It easily can take six months or longer from the time someone makes an assistance list to the first subsidy arriving. The Fort Mill housing group just started assisting some families who had been on a list since 2008. The 141 Housing Authority of Fort Mill apartments have an almost three-year wait.

The sale of those three buildings last year is part of the reason.

“That's why our wait list is as long as it is,” Howard said. “Our wait list for multifamily here used to be a year, year-and-a-half. Now it’s two-and-a-half to three.”

Not that long waits are unique to Fort Mill.

South Carolina has 43 public housing agencies statewide offering the Section 8 program, including offices in Rock Hill, York and Lancaster. According to the national Housing and Urban Development website, “long waiting periods are common” due to demand for housing that “often exceeds the limited resources available.”

Housing agencies can prioritize certain applicants. Families involuntarily displaced, currently homeless or in substandard conditions, who pay a higher portion of the rent or are elderly may find their way higher onto a given list.

Howard is hopeful the lottery system in Fort Mill will be a fair way to go about adding to her list. As long as anyone pulled from the lottery still meets federal requirements.

“The way we’re doing it now, if their name is pulled out in the lottery in the first set, we'd have those people come in and be interviewed to see if they’re eligible,” Howard said. “There's still a process.”

From property management to federal subsidies to a host of other projects, Howard and her staff work to make Fort Mill affordable to as many people as they can. Which can be a challenge. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the estimated median home price in Fort Mill in 2015 was $192,500. The median cost of renting one of almost 1,700 units in Fort Mill was $855 per month.

Charlotte Regional Realtor Association data shows more than 1,500 homes sold in Fort Mill last year at an average price of more than $309,000.

While real state, homebuilding and other groups keep track of people wanting to move here, Howard’s group will, too. Just people who need a little help in staying.

“Everything's for low income,” she said. “That's our goal."

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 11:27 AM with the headline "For folks who could use help paying Fort Mill prices, this chance doesn’t come often.."