People often ask what the most important issues are for District 25. They want to know what I would focus on that would directly benefit the district. There is no shortage of issues. The question is, are there any issues that can positively affect social, economic, and family matters all at once? Something that can be life-changing and impact multiple generations. Something in which I can personally be involved that will directly benefit the people of District 25. Yeah, that’s what I’m after.

About District 25

People often ask what the most important issues are for District 25. They want to know what I would focus on that would directly benefit the district. There is no shortage of issues. The question is, are there any issues that can positively affect social, economic, and family matters all at once? Something that can be life-changing and impact multiple generations. Something that will directly benefit the people of District 25.

About District 25

South Carolina House District 25 covers approximately 57 square miles, making it the fourth largest district in Greenville County, behind district 17, district 28 and district 18. District 25 is socioeconomically ⧉ diverse with many areas of the district in need of economic development, neighborhood revitalization and help for those who live in poverty.

According to the 2017-2021 ACS 5-Year Data Profiles ⧉ , 23% of adults and 37% of children under the age of 18 who live in district 25 live in poverty. That’s almost 1 out of every 4 adults and 1 out of every 3 children! This is one of the highest poverty rates in Greenville Country!

I realize that even attempting to address issues like this is a monumental undertaking. It will not be easy to accomplish, nor will it be completed in a single two-year House term. It will also require help from other concerned people, lawmakers, local and state agencies, educational institutions, public and private organizations, and, of course, area residents. The issues are complex and intertwined, and will take much thought, discussion, research, and planning, combined with trust, commitment, determination, and perseverance. But that’s the American way. We don’t “not try” because it’s difficult, not even if it seems impossible, because the end result is worth it. People are worth it.

District 25 by the Numbers

	District 25	Greenville County
Area:	56.822 Miles	795.572 Miles
Population:	41,346	519,178
Population 16+:	30,943 (75%)	412,963 (80%)
In labor force: * Percentage of age 16+ in labor force	19,487 (63%)*	269,064 (65%)*
Citizen, 18 and over population (Legal voters)	27,318 (66%)	375,628 (72%)
Population 25+	26,656	354,269
Education
High school graduate or higher * Percentage of age 25+	20,360 (76%)*	317,608 ⧉ (90%)*
Bachelor’s degree or higher * Percentage of age 25+	4,185 (16%)	134,247 (38%)
Income
Median family income[^1]	$46,319	$82,318
Mean family income[^2]	$68,611	$109,388
Median household income	$42,598	$65,513
Mean household income	$64,182	$92,330
PERCENTAGE WITH INCOME BELOW THE POVERTY LEVEL (IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS)	23%	11%
Under 18 years	37%	16%
Related children of the householder under 5 years	46%	18%
PERCENTAGE OF FAMILIES AND PEOPLE WHOSE INCOME IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS IS BELOW THE POVERTY LEVEL	19%	8%
Under 18 years	31%	14%
Related children of the householder under 5 years	31%	12%
Housing
Total housing units	16,955	222,937
Owner-occupied	9,038 (57%)	140,877 (63%)
Renter-occupied	6,847 (43%)	64,613 (29%)
Median Value	$127,700	$212,300
SELECTED MONTHLY OWNER COSTS AS A PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME (SMOCAPI)
Housing units with a mortgage (excluding units where SMOCAPI cannot be computed)M	5,011	88,780
Less than 20.0 percent	2,275 (45%)	49,988 (56%)
20.0 to 24.9 percent	662 (13%)	12,222 (14%)
25.0 to 29.9 percent	417 (8%)	8,017 (9%)
30.0 to 34.9 percent (cost-burdened)	518 (10%)	4,655 (5%)
35.0 percent or more (cost-burdened)	1,139 (23%)	13,898 (16%)
GROSS RENT AS A PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME (GRAPI)
Occupied units paying rent (excluding units where GRAPI cannot be computed)	6,111	60,723
Less than 15.0 percent	799 (13%)	8,811 (15%)
15.0 to 19.9 percent	704 (12%)	8,459 (14%)
20.0 to 24.9 percent	684 (11%)	8,316 (14%)
25.0 to 29.9 percent	448 (7%)	6,222 (10%)
30.0 to 34.9 percent (cost-burdened)	736 (12%)	6,266 (10%)
35.0 percent or more (cost-burdened)	2,740 (45%)	22,649 (37%)
Data for District 25 is from 2017-2021 ACS 5-Year Data Profiles ⧉. Data for Greenville County is taken from 2017 - 2021 ACS 5-Year Data Profile ⧉, with “County” as the Geography Type. All percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Economic Development

Economic development is about creating freedom for people and removing obstacles to greater freedom. Greater freedom enables people to choose their own destiny.

— Amartya Kumar Sen, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Economic Development is the process of improving an economically depressed ⧉ area by creating jobs, increasing income, improving living standards, improving education, and promoting sustainable growth. The goal is to produce a prosperous, stable, and self-sustaining environment for social and economic growth. It involves generating new jobs and reducing unemployment, rebuilding or improving infrastructure and improving public transportation.

To begin solving this problem, we must:

• Target the most eligible and needy areas of the district using carefully determined, quantitative and objective measures.
• Identify the unique characteristics, strengths and potential strengths of the area and focus development on building and improving on those strengths.
• Identify and address any weaknesses in an area such as poor utility infrastructure, poor roads, or lack of public transportation.
• Address zoning and land-use regulations to encourage mixed-use development.
• Invest in education, re-education, skills training, and workforce development so that new businesses have a pool of qualified employees from which to hire.
• Invest in resources to reduce crime and the anti-business effect it produces.
• Provide incentives to companies that hire and train new employees from the area.
• Use objective data to track progress and guide decision-making and to identify strengths and weaknesses of the project and adjust as needed.
• Involve local residents and community stakeholders in the planning and decision-making process to ensure that all initiatives will address the needs and priorities of the community.
• Incorporate creative strategies that encourage private investment and bring benefits to the local residents of the area.
• Work with the community to revitalize neighboring areas.

Revitalization

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

— Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

While economic development aims to attract businesses, create jobs, increase income levels and develop economic growth and sustainability, revitalization focuses on physical and social improvements in an area. Revitalization is about enhancing quality of life, improving housing, developing public spaces and fostering a sense of community. Revitalization seeks to make an area a more fulfilling and enjoyable place to live without focusing only on profit or economic gains.

To accomplish this, we must:

• Engage the community and work with community leaders to develop a revitalization plan that does not promote gentrification ⧉, demographic shifts or change the good aspects of area culture.
• Allow community members to determine the types of housing, services and infrastructure that are needed in and around their neighborhoods.
• Provide a good mix of affordable housing that meets the budgets of people in the area.
• Revitalize community centers, parks and historic buildings.
• Encourage developers to hire the people that live in the area to work in the area.
• Work with developers and organizations who have been drivers of successful revitalization projects in the past.
• Focus on development without displacement.

Reduce Poverty

The children who suffer poverty’s effects are not its only victims. When children do not succeed as adults, all of society pays the price: businesses are able to find fewer good workers, consumers pay more for their goods, hospitals and health insurers spend more treating preventable illnesses, teachers spend more time on remediation and special education, private citizens feel less safe on the streets, governors hire more prison guards, mayors must pay to shelter homeless families, judges must hear more criminal, domestic, and other cases, taxpayers pay for problems that could have been prevented, fire and medical workers must respond to emergencies that never should have happened, and funeral directors must bury children who never should have died.

— Children’s Defense Fund

Poverty describes the situation where an individual or community does not have sufficient financial resources or other essentials to maintain a basic standard of living. It’s a scenario where people are unable to pay their bills and meet their basic human needs. While unforeseen events and circumstances can cause some people to experience times of poverty, others continually face difficult living conditions and a lack of resources that can perpetuate a cycle where each generation remains in poverty.

Breaking the poverty cycle is a very difficult and very complex challenge that requires both immediate and long-term solutions. Economic development and revitalization are both steps toward creating an environment of reduced long-term poverty, but breaking the cycle will require:

• Engaging public, private, and non-profit agency leaders, and community residents in open conversations to identify the impact of poverty on community residents and determine the poverty-drivers so that we can understand the issues and determine any potential policy and/or community change strategies and solutions.
• Reducing the burden of government by reducing taxes.
• Schools to provide adult education or re-education classes to further train or re-train those who are struggling to get or keep a job.
• Improve primary and high school education in and around the area and improve high school graduation rates.
• Encourage high school graduates to learn a skilled trade or seek further college education.

While the items above are ways that a community and government can actively work on poverty, there are ways that other entities can be involved:

• Help stabilize hurting families. Transitioning from a two-parent home to a single-parent home can be a financially devastating event. It can be even more devastating when you consider how often children are caught in the middle and dragged into poverty. Churches and other social organizations can provide counseling and support to hurting families, helping them work through problems and difficulties.
• Provide food for those in the greatest need. Food expenses can take a significant portion of the family’s monthly income. Food banks, churches and other community organizations can provide food to those who are in need. This helps provide physical relief from hunger, while allowing income to be redirected to other monthly needs.
• Financial organizations can provide counseling and budgeting services to help people better understand how to organize and monitor their finances, reduce debt, manage monthly expenses, and gradually build savings.
• Encourage churches and child care facilities to provide affordable child care for parents who work.

Other things we can potentially look into (these are just ideas, the merit of which is open to debate):

• Review the work of other county, city, or state poverty commissions or organizations  and learn from poverty reduction experts.
• Raise the high school dropout age to age 18.
• Increase work-based learning ⧉ programs in Career and Technical schools.
• Expand apprenticeship programs.
• Promote the “Success Sequence ⧉” as a path to success for young people.
• Introduce small business startup classes and provide business startup grants to those under the age of 25.
• Implement policies that reduce spending on transportation.
• Find new ways to lower household energy and water costs.
• Improve access to basic services, jobs, and education.
• Encourage after school programs that help kids with homework and teach life skills.
• Provide job assistance through the schools for students who want a job.

Summary

You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

— Adrian Rogers

No government can legislate the end of poverty, nor can it solve poverty by giving away what it does not own. Implementing a comprehensive economic development plan that includes quality education and job training, and fosters job creation through business startups, growth of existing businesses and bringing new businesses to the area, provides the opportunities and resources needed to overcome poverty. Revitalizing communities, strengthening families, helping students finish high school, helping adults get and keep a job and helping families understand and manage their finances are ways to encourage people to work hard to escape poverty and build a more secure future.

Footnotes

[^1] Median Family Income (dollars):
This is is the middle value of family incomes when they are arranged in ascending order. In other words, half of the families earn more than this amount, and half earn less. The median is useful because it is not affected by extremely high or low incomes, providing a more accurate representation of a typical family’s income. Mean Family Income (dollars):
This is the average family income, calculated by adding up all family incomes and dividing by the number of families. The mean can be skewed by very high or very low incomes, which might not accurately reflect the income of a typical family.

When you compare the median to the mean, it provides some insights into income distribution:

• If the mean is significantly higher than the median, it suggests that there are some very high incomes pulling the average up, indicating income inequality.
• If the mean and median are close, it suggests a more even distribution of income