Greenville to use tourism dollars to add more affordable housing [Video]

A new South Carolina has allowed the city of Greenville to use money from tourists to develop more affordable and workforce housing. City officials have paid $965,000 on the first piece of land off West Washington Street for that purpose. It is being paid by accommodation taxes, which are collected from hotel stays and tourism. “This is the first time that accommodations tax has been loosened to be used for housing, and so that is a pipeline of money that we would very much like to use for this,” Greenville City Council Member Dorothy Dowe said. “Our hotels are doing very well.”When Gov. Henry McMaster signed Act 57 last June, it allowed cities like Greenville to have access to funding it never had before. Dowe said the goal is to have more affordable homes near where people work with this new line of money. “Our tourism industry relies on a …