CHARLSETON, W.Va. — One of Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin’s goals over her next four years in office is to build 25 single family housing units on the city’s West Side and East End.
“We want to make sure we’re providing our families with stable, flexible housing, good budgets and great neighborhoods,” the mayor told 580-WCHS.
Goodwin outlined the plan in her State of the City address Tuesday night.
The plan includes using Charleston’s Vacant Structure Registry to identify empty and unsecured properties in the city. The Goodwin administration previously created a Land Reuse Agency to help deal with the problem.
Goodwin said the days of the city putting bandages on dilapidated structures are over.
“Over the past four years we have torn down over 400 dilapidated structures,” she said. “It is the exact reason why we created this Land Reuse Agency and we spent a lot of time over these last four years tearing down and catching up to these dilapidated structures. Now it’s time to rebuild.”
Goodwin said the agency is part of her long term vision to increase affordable housing.
“Having great, affordable housing, we know, improves educational outcomes for our kiddos, helps ensure our most vulnerable can remain housed,” she said.
Starting on the East End and West Side makes sense, Goodwin said, especially with economic development projects in the works. She said her goal is to not only attract visitors to the city, but to also encourage more people to stay.
“When you own a house, you put down roots. You make a house your home. It is the center of what you do. We need to not only just tear down these dilapidated structures, but we’ve got to build back,” Goodwin said.