Johnna Murray: Charleston County Community Development

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

September 22, 2015 – Delivering our message this week was Johnna Murray, the Community Development Director for Charleston County.  Murray is a native of the Lowcountry, born on Pawley’s Island.  Having spent her undergraduate years at Columbia College, Murray received a Master’s degree from Winthrop University and was named a Riley Diversity Fellow by Furman University in 2011.  Perhaps most fitting in her background for us is the fact that she was a Rotary International exchange student.  She relayed how when she was 16 she visited France under the sponsorship of our service organization.

The mission of Murray’s department is to enhance the livability of our communities through funds provided by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  In fact her department’s budget is entirely funded by HUD.  Among other things her department brings housing for low to moderate income families and enhances water and sewer systems in rural areas of the county.  Her department also provides funding for homeless services, legal services for the poor and children’s services such as the Dee Norton Lowcountry Children’s Center.

To provide these services to our region, Murray’s team administers HUD grants to assist developers and non-profits with affordable housing construction and existing housing rehabilitation.  Even projects to build sidewalks fall within the purview of her efforts to enhance community life.  In order to meet the needs of our community, Murray’s department must know what those needs are.  Every five years her department prepares a comprehensive plan which provides the roadmap for addressing all livability improvement priorities in the county.  And it is this comprehensive plan which makes Murray’s message this week particularly timely.  Her department has just begun taking public input for the county’s next five-year plan.  In order to develop the plan, Murray must receive information from citizens all across the county.  As she stated the needs in Awendaw are not going to be the same as those for Lincolnville or Meggett.  To discover the local views her staff holds meetings from one end of the county to the other.  This process of gathering grass-roots individual opinion allows her team to assemble a plan which will guide her department in community development that fits the priorities county residents most want addressed.  After the public input is obtained, Murray’s staff drafts the plan and it is submitted to HUD for approval.  Once approved by HUD, the comprehensive plan forms the basis of Murray’s approval of grant requests from developers and non-profits in the county.

Naturally, with so many funds being administered by her department, Murray was asked about the problem of avoiding fraud.  She relayed that HUD has done a very good job of policing grant recipients and often engages in undercover investigations.  One of the primary focuses of recent HUD review has been housing discrimination.  In a recent probe HUD had individuals call apartment complexes posing as prospective renters.  HUD investigators found that when such callers indicated that they had disabilities or that they were a single parent with multiple children, they were told by the complex managers that no apartments were available, but when the investigators called the same complexes and did not mention disabilities or multiple children, they were told apartments were available.

Because Murray is in the beginning stages of creating the next comprehensive plan for our county, she is seeking our aid.  So far her team has obtained about 550 comments, but her goal is to receive around 2,000.  That is where we come in.  She asked that we provide our own input and share this information with our family, friends, and neighbors and with fellow members of other organizations to which we belong.  To complete a brief online survey for Murray’s department, just go to https://surveymonkey.com/r/CharlestonCountyConsolidatedPlan.  Let’s help Murray make our county a more livable positive environment for us all.

Alex Dallis, Keyway Committee