Some of the Charleston region’s largest employers have found a way into the housing business without becoming landlords.

Fifteen investors, among them the Medical University of South Carolina, Boeing South Carolina, Novant Health and the College of Charleston, have put money into a fund that buys existing apartment complexes and caps rents for 20 years. In its first year, the Charleston Workforce Housing Fund raised $40 million and bought two complexes with nearly 500 apartments, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance said in an annual report released Sept. 16.

The fund grew out of a complaint business groups have made for years: the people companies want to hire can’t afford to live near the jobs.

Why employers got involved

The alliance’s main job is recruiting companies to the region. Its work on housing started about two years before the fund’s launch, when top businesses in the region said a lack of affordable housing was becoming a serious problem, alliance vice president Jason Brown told The Post and Courier in September 2025. Rents in the area had risen more than 30% since 2020, the newspaper reported.

Newer figures show the strain. Nearly 40% of tri-county families spend at least a third of their income on housing, according to Trident United Way data cited when the Coastal Community Foundation launched a housing fund in August, The Post and Courier reported. A family of four that could cover housing, utilities, child care and food on about $36,000 a year in 2005 now needs about $89,000, according to the same announcement.

“We all need to lean in together to address our workforce housing challenge,” MUSC President David Cole said in a statement on the alliance’s website. “This fund is an innovative step forward, ensuring that the nurses, teachers, and essential workers who serve our region can also afford to live here.”

MUSC put in $5 million of the first $35 million raised, The Post and Courier reported. Cole helped connect the alliance with Charlotte health care colleagues who knew the fund’s manager, Brown told the newspaper.

How the fund works

The fund is a for-profit investment vehicle modeled on a Charlotte program run by Ascent Housing, which also manages the Charleston fund. It buys well-kept apartment complexes in less expensive parts of the region, records a 20-year affordability deed restriction, then sells the buildings at the end of that period.

Investors accept a lower return than typical real estate buyers. Mark Ethridge, Ascent’s founder, told The Post and Courier that investors expect to earn 6% a year, rising to an annualized 8% when the buildings are sold, compared with the 14% to 18% that apartment investors usually expect. Banks can also earn credit under the federal Community Reinvestment Act, the newspaper reported.

Besides MUSC, Boeing, Novant and the College of Charleston, the initial investors were Advanced Technology International, First Citizens Bank, First National Bank, Huntington National Bank, Pinnacle Financial Partners, REV Federal Credit Union, South State Bank, The InterTech Group, The Leon Levine Foundation, Truist Bank and United Bank, according to the newspaper.

The first two deals

In late December the fund bought West Wind Apartments, a 212-unit complex in West Ashley, the alliance said. It reserved 40% of the units for households earning less than 60% of the area median income, with rents for those households $275 to $475 a month below comparable nearby apartments, about 20% under market. Existing residents can keep renewing their leases. The fund planned a $1 million renovation starting in February, including space for a full-time family coach from Trident United Way.

In May it paid $41.25 million for Waverly Place Apartments, a 276-unit complex in the Dorchester County part of North Charleston, The Post and Courier reported. Ninety percent of those units are reserved for households earning 80% of the median or less, and Ethridge said rents had already dropped $175 to $455 a month depending on the floor plan.

“We had a lot of empty units prior to being bought. The units are filled now,” West Wind resident Raegan Henneman said at a May 20 event, according to the newspaper.

Ethridge said the fund expects to reach 1,000 apartments by the end of 2027.

The limits

The fund does not build anything. Its backers have said it is one tool rather than a solution, The Post and Courier reported, and it preserves rents at existing buildings rather than adding supply.

Brown also said the fund would have more impact if local governments were willing to reduce or rebate property taxes on the buildings it buys. “It does provide more impact if they are willing to shave off property taxes,” he told the newspaper in 2025.

Even 1,000 units would be small against the need. The Coastal Community Foundation says the region could be 34,000 homes short by 2040.

A second, bigger fund

That estimate came with the launch of the region’s next effort. On Aug. 12, the foundation announced the Tri-County Housing Futures Fund, which aims to raise $100 million over five years and use grants, loans and co-investments to help create at least 2,500 homes and repair 1,000 more. Homes it supports will carry affordability deed restrictions for at least 50 years, and they will be open to households earning up to 120% of the area median, a band that includes firefighters, teachers and hospitality workers, The Post and Courier reported.

JPMorganChase gave $500,000 to set up the fund’s operations. “The Charleston area’s housing shortage is not only a community challenge; it’s a workforce and economic competitiveness issue for the region,” Trey Hamilton, J.P. Morgan’s South Carolina commercial banking market executive, said in a statement.

The fund is led by Geona Shaw Johnson, the city of Charleston’s former housing director, and expects to make its first investment early next year. “It’s more than just the money, it’s the opportunity to bring municipalities, private philanthropists and corporations together to address housing, but also to address some of the issues around policy and zoning,” foundation CEO Darrin Goss Sr. told The Post and Courier.

Employers going it alone

A few employers are housing workers directly. An affiliate of New York-based Blue Hour Housing paid $18.75 million for Forest at Fenwick, an 80-unit complex on Johns Island, to house staff of a Charleston-area employer it did not name, The Post and Courier reported in June.

“If they can provide housing that is safe, affordable and nice, that’s going to attract the best talent and the best people in the areas,” Blue Hour founder Matt Karle told the newspaper, speaking of employers. The owner of Sweetgrass Pharmacy in Mount Pleasant bought condos for employees in 2024, the paper reported.

Public employers are paying cash. Folly Beach gives police, fire and dispatch employees $600 a month if they live in the city and $300 if they live on James Island. Eleven employees used the stipend as of March, and the city had a waitlist, The Post and Courier reported.

Where the public money is

Charleston County Council has allocated more than $12 million in accommodations taxes to a revolving loan fund, and the county committed $4.8 million in February to four projects with 184 affordable and workforce units, according to the newspaper. The city of Charleston, which wants 3,500 new affordable units by 2032, began seeking design firms in August for sites on the peninsula.

How we reported this

We used the Charleston Regional Development Alliance’s 2025-26 annual report, its announcements of the fund’s launch and first acquisition, and its fund web page; the Coastal Community Foundation’s Aug. 12 announcement as reported by The Post and Courier; and Post and Courier reporting on the fund’s investors and second purchase, the Johns Island employer housing deal, the Folly Beach stipends, Charleston County’s trust fund and the city of Charleston’s affordable housing plans.