News & Updates
SC Association of CDCs Elects 2010 Board
Charleston January 5, 2010 – The South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations, Inc. recently elected its board of directors for 2010. The board functions as the governing body of the association and determines the official policy of the organization.
Deborah Livingston was elected to serve as SCACDC board chairperson for 2010. Livingston has served on the board of directors since 2008. She is the executive director of the Columbia Housing Development Corporation and the TN Development Corporation. These two non-profit development corporations provide quality affordable housing for the citizens of Columbia , SC. P.O.W.E.R. Center
Other members recently elected to the SCACDC board of directors include: Erick Bradshaw, Fresh Start Community Development Corporation in Anderson Greenville Myrtle Beach
Returning directors include: Wilbur Cave as vice chairman, Allendale County Alive in Allendale; Wilbur Johnson, Young Clement Rivers, LLC in Charleston; Bernie Mazyck as President & CEO, SCACDC in Charleston; Nate Barber as treasurer, SC Bank and Trust in Columbia; Michael Lentz, Carolina First in Ronda, NC; Andrea Stevenson, Charleston Area CDC in North Charleston; John Stokes, BB&T in Charlotte, NC; and John Whittleton, City of Lake City.
Op-Ed to Senator Graham
By Bernie Mazyck (President and CEO of the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations) and Reverend Michael McClain (Baptist Minister and Regional Field Coordinator for Climate and Energy at the National Council of Churches USA)
December 10, 2009
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that our national unemployment rate stands at 10 percent. While a slight improvement from October, this number is still staggering. In South Carolina, we’re not ready to breathe a sigh of relief yet: the state unemployment rate was 12.1 percent in October, the fifth-highest rate in the country. How we respond to this employment crisis in the short term was the subject of a high profile ‘jobs summit’ hosted by President Obama at the White House last week. A long-term solution to our economic challenges may rest with the comprehensive climate and energy legislation that Senator Lindsey Graham is now crafting with his colleagues in the Senate. No other initiative will more profoundly affect our state’s economy and the basic pocketbook issues faced by our families.
We write this column as two people who care deeply about the environment. But we are not environmentalists, and we do not approach climate and energy legislation as environmental policy. Rather, we view it as economic policy that provides us with the chance to advance core values of opportunity, fairness, and shared prosperity. And such economic policy must pay particular attention to the workers and families who are struggling the most in the midst of this great recession.
South Carolina’s vulnerabilities to climate change surround us — from the threat to our coastal ecosystems, to changing weather patterns that could result in a greater frequency of intense hurricanes, as well as more extreme heat and periods of drought. Our need to address these and other vulnerabilities mean we face economic as well as ecological problems, and it will be low-income communities who are impacted first and worst if we don’t address them. If we view these problems in combination with our dangerous dependence on foreign oil supplies, it’s clear that the only credible response is to build a green economy. This new economy could offer a brighter future, filled not only with cleaner sources of energy, but opportunities for innovation and new jobs our state and our country so desperately seek. South Carolina can capitalize on our status as one of the 15 states with a small and fast growing clean energy economy (3.56% average annual growth) as reported by the Pew Charitable Trusts. But the road to realizing this dream will take more than the sum of our individual and local efforts. We believe the time for national action is now.
We applaud Senator Graham for extending a hand across the aisle, showing climate change is an issue that threatens all people equally, regardless of party, and taking a step toward a clean energy future by supporting a cap and price on carbon emissions. As the Senate debates climate legislation, we urge Senator Graham to ensure that these policies both maximize the opportunities for and minimize the negative impact on South Carolina’s most vulnerable citizens.
Climate legislation must abide by the fundamental principle of not making low-income families even worse off than they are today. The higher energy costs inherent in dealing effectively with climate change will place a burden on households already struggling to make ends meet. These costs are modest and manageable, however, and well-designed legislation can offset this burden and even create opportunities for low-income South Carolinians.
The Senate must ensure its climate bill sets aside enough resources to fully protect low-income consumers. Simply providing relief through utility bills will not suffice, which is why the House of Representatives provided targeted, direct relief to offset the full impact for low-income households. More than 1.1 million South Carolinians would be eligible for relief under these provisions. We urge Senator Graham and his colleagues to provide the same protections in the Senate.
At the same time, we need to create jobs that are accessible to the broadest range of workers. There’s no better way to do that than through significant investments in energy efficiency, which create substantial numbers of jobs in the construction and energy industries. Energy efficiency also brings down energy bills for consumers (who typically save $3 for every $1 invested in energy efficiency) and reduces our overall demand for energy, making it easier to comply with the cap on greenhouse gas emissions. An effective way to achieve these multiple ends would be to require electric utilities to make a significant investment in energy efficiency.
These actions, taken together, will ensure South Carolinians are protected and provided opportunity during the transition to a clean energy future. We are grateful for Senator Graham’s leadership and hope he will work with his colleagues to ensure the Senate climate bill simultaneously addresses the needs of the environment, the economy, and low-income South Carolinians. Let’s support our Senator as he navigates a sustainable, equitable, and just path forward.
SCACDC Convening Leaders for SC's Green Economy (Charleston , SC
There is a logical and credible reason for the S.C. Association of Community Development Corporations (SCACDC) to lead the convening of an Energy Efficiency/Green Economy Cluster in South Carolina South Carolinians are staying in their homes longer and looking to make their homes more energy efficient to lower their utility costs. As the housing market rebounds, new construction will need to be green and energy efficient. An additional incentive to advance a green economy is the need for S.C. and the U.S.
South Carolina South Carolina
· CDCs, CHDOs, and CAP agencies have a track record in housing renovation and rehabilitation. That track record has placed these groups in the forefront of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) effort in South Carolina South Carolina
· The skill level of rehab contractors and their workers is an ideal platform to launch a workforce development strategy that trains South Carolinians to receive nationally recognized Builders Performance Institute (BPI) and Air Sealing Technician (IAST) certification for weatherization, housing rehabilitation for energy efficiency, commercial building retrofit for energy efficiency, and installation of technology to conserve energy, i.e. "smart light switches", solar panel installation, solar grid development, etc.
· With the change in the state's dominant employment (manufacturing), South Carolina
· Thanks to a $285,000 earmark secured by Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Association of CDCs will provide an Energy Efficiency and Weatherization Construction Training Program, in partnership with Trident Technical College
· With a commitment of support from South Carolina Deputy Chief of Staff , U.S. South Carolina
Presently, there is a void in leadership of bringing the appropriate players/leaders together to map out a comprehensive vision and a strategy to grow this new industry in South Carolina
State Associations of CDCs to Host Community Economic Development Conference
June 22, 2009
(Charleston , SC Carolinas and features a variety of workshops ranging from green economy and development to innovative financing techniques. READ MORE
Earned Income Tax Credit - Free Help Available
January 30, 2009 The South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations (SCACDC) is kicking off its outreach campaign to ensure that eligible taxpayers file for the Earned Income Tax Credit. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit available to qualifying low-wage workers and their families. In these tough times, with an alarming national increase in layoffs and salary reductions, more people will qualify for the EITC than ever before, and low-income families will need their tax refund more than ever. READ MORE
Posted on Wed, Jan. 28, 2009 in The State Newspaper
Bolton: State needs to help rural areas out of permanent recession
By WARREN BOLTON
Associate editor
WHILE FOLKS across the state are understandably worried about the flailing economy, residents in some of South Carolina’s rural counties live in a permanent state of recession.
I’m talking about areas where double-digit unemployment is an unfortunate way of life.
Void of needed infrastructure — from water and sewer to quality roads and schools — they struggle to keep their best and brightest at home as well as to lure not only high-paying jobs, but jobs that pay anything.
Despite these areas’ dire situations, there hasn’t been much of a sense of urgency over the years among state leaders to address the dearth of infrastructure, economic development and employment they endure.
More often than not, if there is trouble in underserved areas, they receive only token attention. But let those problems show up in Columbia or Charleston or Greenville — and indeed it has — and it’s a crisis.
With the recession squeezing South Carolina’s economy and the state’s jobless rate reaching 9.5 percent in December — double digits aren’t far away — many people, including elected and business leaders, are worried and calling for action.
Chances are that whatever remedies are provided, whether in the form of the planned federal stimulus or possible action on the state level, it won’t reach the long-neglected rural areas.
“As usual, rural communities and high-impoverished counties continue to suffer. When other communities get a cold, our rural communities catch pneumonia,” said Bernie Mazyck, president and CEO of the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.
He said, generally, rural areas don’t get consistent investment and little has been said as they’ve languished under the weight of high unemployment.
“It’s only now that ... boardrooms are being affected that there is the interest in the level of unemployment,” he said.
Indeed, it is funny that rural areas that deal with tough local economies day-in and day-out get little, if any, attention, but when those problems hit Columbia, Charleston, Greenville and Lexington, everybody panics.
The alarm is understandable. Much of the state’s economic growth has been in urban areas. The state depends on sales and other taxes from those areas to help fund government. It’s critical for those areas to recover.
But there’s also good reason to help rural areas get on their feet. They are a drag on the state economically in good or bad times. If the state is going to reach its full potential, it must help shore up long-neglected rural areas.
While seemingly every county is hurting now, urban counties, such as Beaufort, Richland and Lexington, are not strangers to unemployment rates below 4 percent. Conversely, some poor, rural counties, such as Williamsburg, Laurens, Fairfield, Abbeville, Marlboro, Chester, Union, Orangeburg and Marion counties, know what it’s like to have double-digit jobless rates.
Pick any date, and you’ll find rural areas have long suffered.
In February of 2007, unemployment statewide was 6.1 percent. In 17 rural counties, the jobless rate was 9 percent. No urban county had an unemployment rate that high. Marion County’s was 13.6 percent.
In December of 1999, the state’s unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. Four counties had double-digit unemployment rates: Williamsburg at 12.5 percent, Marion at 11.9 percent, McCormick at 10.7 percent and Marlboro at 10 percent. Greenville and Lexington counties had the lowest rates at 2 percent.
In July of 1998, South Carolina’s unemployment rate was 3.8 percent. But five counties had double-digit unemployment: Marlboro 13.0; Williamsburg 12.1; Fairfield 11.1; Orangeburg 10.7; and Marion, 10.2.
While there are some small, limited funds and programs in place to help rural areas, it’s hardly enough. And unless someone takes it upon themselves to focus on those areas, it’s a good chance they won’t get much help — even if South Carolina does get stimulus money.
You do have folks such as Congressman James Clyburn who constantly tries to figure out ways to help his largely rural and poor district, often drawing criticism about depending on earmarks. Fortunately, Mr. Mazyck and his organization also is out there helping CDCs fight to save their communities.
State officials know where and what the needs are. They should consider a comprehensive, proactive approach that helps needy areas help themselves.
Job development statewide, especially in underserved areas, ought to be a priority all the time, Mr. Mazyck said.
The state often concentrates on recruiting on a grand scale, spending tens of millions recruiting large companies. Mr. Mazyck thinks there is merit in investing on a smaller scale as well. Few, if any, large companies will end up in small, rural areas. “They don’t have the cachet to attract a BMW,” Mr. Mazyck said.
Mr. Mazyck said the state could help by offering small loans to start micro- and small businesses. “We’ve been advocating and continue to advocate investment from the state that grows businesses.”
Local businesses employing local people help build an area’s economy, he said. “When you have that going on during good times, then you’re in better position to weather the tough times.”
How rural communities weather tough times is as important as how the urban areas fare.
“Communities aren’t always judged on how well the wealthy are doing. They’re judged on how well the disenfranchised are doing,” Mr. Mazyck said.
Hear, hear.
SCACDC Members Receive Funding
January 7, 2009
The South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations kicks off its 15th anniversary year with the announcement of the latest round of grantees of the S.C. Community Economic Development (CED) Fund and the Community Impact Fund. READ MORE
Deborah Livingston was elected to serve as SCACDC board chairperson for 2010.
Other members recently elected to the SCACDC board of directors include: Erick Bradshaw, Fresh Start Community Development Corporation in
Returning directors include: Wilbur Cave as vice chairman, Allendale County Alive in Allendale; Wilbur Johnson, Young Clement Rivers, LLC in Charleston;
By
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that our national unemployment rate stands at 10 percent. While a slight improvement from October, this number is still staggering. In South Carolina, we’re not ready to breathe a sigh of relief yet: the state unemployment rate was 12.1 percent in October, the fifth-highest rate in the country. How we respond to this employment crisis in the short term was the subject of a high profile ‘jobs summit’ hosted by President Obama at the White House last week. A long-term solution to our economic challenges may rest with the comprehensive climate and energy legislation that Senator Lindsey Graham is now crafting with his colleagues in the Senate. No other initiative will more profoundly affect our state’s economy and the basic pocketbook issues faced by our families.
We write this column as two people who care deeply about the environment. But we are not environmentalists, and we do not approach climate and energy legislation as environmental policy. Rather, we view it as economic policy that provides us with the chance to advance core values of opportunity, fairness, and shared prosperity. And such economic policy must pay particular attention to the workers and families who are struggling the most in the midst of this great recession.
South Carolina’s vulnerabilities to climate change surround us — from the threat to our coastal ecosystems, to changing weather patterns that could result in a greater frequency of intense hurricanes, as well as more extreme heat and periods of drought. Our need to address these and other vulnerabilities mean we face economic as well as ecological problems, and it will be low-income communities who are impacted first and worst if we don’t address them. If we view these problems in combination with our dangerous dependence on foreign oil supplies, it’s clear that the only credible response is to build a green economy. This new economy could offer a brighter future, filled not only with cleaner sources of energy, but opportunities for innovation and new jobs our state and our country so desperately seek. South Carolina can capitalize on our status as one of the 15 states with a small and fast growing clean energy economy (3.56% average annual growth) as reported by the Pew Charitable Trusts. But the road to realizing this dream will take more than the sum of our individual and local efforts. We believe the time for national action is now.
We applaud Senator Graham for extending a hand across the aisle, showing climate change is an issue that threatens all people equally, regardless of party, and taking a step toward a clean energy future by supporting a cap and price on carbon emissions. As the Senate debates climate legislation, we urge Senator Graham to ensure that these policies both maximize the opportunities for and minimize the negative impact on South Carolina’s most vulnerable citizens.
Climate legislation must abide by the fundamental principle of not making low-income families even worse off than they are today. The higher energy costs inherent in dealing effectively with climate change will place a burden on households already struggling to make ends meet. These costs are modest and manageable, however, and well-designed legislation can offset this burden and even create opportunities for low-income South Carolinians.
The Senate must ensure its climate bill sets aside enough resources to fully protect low-income consumers. Simply providing relief through utility bills will not suffice, which is why the House of Representatives provided targeted, direct relief to offset the full impact for low-income households. More than 1.1 million South Carolinians would be eligible for relief under these provisions. We urge Senator Graham and his colleagues to provide the same protections in the Senate.
At the same time, we need to create jobs that are accessible to the broadest range of workers. There’s no better way to do that than through significant investments in energy efficiency, which create substantial numbers of jobs in the construction and energy industries. Energy efficiency also brings down energy bills for consumers (who typically save $3 for every $1 invested in energy efficiency) and reduces our overall demand for energy, making it easier to comply with the cap on greenhouse gas emissions. An effective way to achieve these multiple ends would be to require electric utilities to make a significant investment in energy efficiency.
These actions, taken together, will ensure South Carolinians are protected and provided opportunity during the transition to a clean energy future. We are grateful for Senator Graham’s leadership and hope he will work with his colleagues to ensure the Senate climate bill simultaneously addresses the needs of the environment, the economy, and low-income South Carolinians. Let’s support our Senator as he navigates a sustainable, equitable, and just path forward.
(
There is a logical and credible reason for the S.C. Association of Community Development Corporations (SCACDC) to lead the convening of an Energy Efficiency/Green Economy Cluster in
· CDCs, CHDOs, and CAP agencies have a track record in housing renovation and rehabilitation. That track record has placed these groups in the forefront of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) effort in
· The skill level of rehab contractors and their workers is an ideal platform to launch a workforce development strategy that trains South Carolinians to receive nationally recognized Builders Performance Institute (BPI) and Air Sealing Technician (IAST) certification for weatherization, housing rehabilitation for energy efficiency, commercial building retrofit for energy efficiency, and installation of technology to conserve energy, i.e. "smart light switches", solar panel installation, solar grid development, etc.
· With the change in the state's dominant employment (manufacturing),
· Thanks to a $285,000 earmark secured by Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Association of CDCs will provide an Energy Efficiency and Weatherization Construction Training Program, in partnership with
· With a commitment of support from
Presently, there is a void in leadership of bringing the appropriate players/leaders together to map out a comprehensive vision and a strategy to grow this new industry in
(
The South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations (SCACDC) is kicking off its outreach campaign to ensure that eligible taxpayers file for the Earned Income Tax Credit. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit available to qualifying low-wage workers and their families. In these tough times, with an alarming national increase in layoffs and salary reductions, more people will qualify for the EITC than ever before, and low-income families will need their tax refund more than ever. READ MORE
Bolton: State needs to help rural areas out of permanent recession
By WARREN BOLTON
Associate editor
WHILE FOLKS across the state are understandably worried about the flailing economy, residents in some of South Carolina’s rural counties live in a permanent state of recession.
I’m talking about areas where double-digit unemployment is an unfortunate way of life.
Void of needed infrastructure — from water and sewer to quality roads and schools — they struggle to keep their best and brightest at home as well as to lure not only high-paying jobs, but jobs that pay anything.
Despite these areas’ dire situations, there hasn’t been much of a sense of urgency over the years among state leaders to address the dearth of infrastructure, economic development and employment they endure.
More often than not, if there is trouble in underserved areas, they receive only token attention. But let those problems show up in Columbia or Charleston or Greenville — and indeed it has — and it’s a crisis.
With the recession squeezing South Carolina’s economy and the state’s jobless rate reaching 9.5 percent in December — double digits aren’t far away — many people, including elected and business leaders, are worried and calling for action.
Chances are that whatever remedies are provided, whether in the form of the planned federal stimulus or possible action on the state level, it won’t reach the long-neglected rural areas.
“As usual, rural communities and high-impoverished counties continue to suffer. When other communities get a cold, our rural communities catch pneumonia,” said Bernie Mazyck, president and CEO of the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.
He said, generally, rural areas don’t get consistent investment and little has been said as they’ve languished under the weight of high unemployment.
“It’s only now that ... boardrooms are being affected that there is the interest in the level of unemployment,” he said.
Indeed, it is funny that rural areas that deal with tough local economies day-in and day-out get little, if any, attention, but when those problems hit Columbia, Charleston, Greenville and Lexington, everybody panics.
The alarm is understandable. Much of the state’s economic growth has been in urban areas. The state depends on sales and other taxes from those areas to help fund government. It’s critical for those areas to recover.
But there’s also good reason to help rural areas get on their feet. They are a drag on the state economically in good or bad times. If the state is going to reach its full potential, it must help shore up long-neglected rural areas.
While seemingly every county is hurting now, urban counties, such as Beaufort, Richland and Lexington, are not strangers to unemployment rates below 4 percent. Conversely, some poor, rural counties, such as Williamsburg, Laurens, Fairfield, Abbeville, Marlboro, Chester, Union, Orangeburg and Marion counties, know what it’s like to have double-digit jobless rates.
Pick any date, and you’ll find rural areas have long suffered.
In February of 2007, unemployment statewide was 6.1 percent. In 17 rural counties, the jobless rate was 9 percent. No urban county had an unemployment rate that high. Marion County’s was 13.6 percent.
In December of 1999, the state’s unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. Four counties had double-digit unemployment rates: Williamsburg at 12.5 percent, Marion at 11.9 percent, McCormick at 10.7 percent and Marlboro at 10 percent. Greenville and Lexington counties had the lowest rates at 2 percent.
In July of 1998, South Carolina’s unemployment rate was 3.8 percent. But five counties had double-digit unemployment: Marlboro 13.0; Williamsburg 12.1; Fairfield 11.1; Orangeburg 10.7; and Marion, 10.2.
While there are some small, limited funds and programs in place to help rural areas, it’s hardly enough. And unless someone takes it upon themselves to focus on those areas, it’s a good chance they won’t get much help — even if South Carolina does get stimulus money.
You do have folks such as Congressman James Clyburn who constantly tries to figure out ways to help his largely rural and poor district, often drawing criticism about depending on earmarks. Fortunately, Mr. Mazyck and his organization also is out there helping CDCs fight to save their communities.
State officials know where and what the needs are. They should consider a comprehensive, proactive approach that helps needy areas help themselves.
Job development statewide, especially in underserved areas, ought to be a priority all the time, Mr. Mazyck said.
The state often concentrates on recruiting on a grand scale, spending tens of millions recruiting large companies. Mr. Mazyck thinks there is merit in investing on a smaller scale as well. Few, if any, large companies will end up in small, rural areas. “They don’t have the cachet to attract a BMW,” Mr. Mazyck said.
Mr. Mazyck said the state could help by offering small loans to start micro- and small businesses. “We’ve been advocating and continue to advocate investment from the state that grows businesses.”
Local businesses employing local people help build an area’s economy, he said. “When you have that going on during good times, then you’re in better position to weather the tough times.”
How rural communities weather tough times is as important as how the urban areas fare.
“Communities aren’t always judged on how well the wealthy are doing. They’re judged on how well the disenfranchised are doing,” Mr. Mazyck said.
Hear, hear.
The South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations kicks off its 15th anniversary year with the announcement of the latest round of grantees of the S.C. Community Economic Development (CED) Fund and the Community Impact Fund. READ MORE
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