Chiropractic Care in North Charleston, SC

A worker must earn about $20 an hour on average to afford a two-bedroom apartment in South Carolina, a new report shows.

In some areas the cost is higher.

Rent costs have skyrocketed in the past year across South Carolina and the rest of the U.S, putting affordable homes out of reach of more residents. A new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, highlights the disparity between low wages and fair market rents.

“Yet dramatic increases in rent prices over the last year have likely exacerbated the problem, making the process of finding and maintaining affordable housing even more difficult for low-income tenants,” the report states.

In South Carolina, the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,004. To afford such rent and utilities without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $3,346 monthly — assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks a year, the report states.

For someone earning minimum wage, he or she would need to work 106 hours a week, or 2.7 full-time jobs, to afford that rent.

And in some places in South Carolina, the cost is greater.

The Charleston-North Charleston area was ranked the most expensive, with a person needing to earn $26.38 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Beaufort County was listed as second most expensive, with an hourly wage of $24.10 to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

In 294 out of the 345 metropolitan counties tracked by Apartment List across the U.S., rental prices for a two-bedroom apartment increased over $100 between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the report states. In each of the preceding four years, the number of metropolitan counties experiencing a decrease in rental prices ranged from 31 to 76.

There are some rent and utility assistance programs in the state available for people in need, such as the SC Stay Plus program. It can help households with 12 months of rental and utility assistance.

However, the following seven counties received other funding and are providing their own rental assistance programs: Anderson, Berkeley, Charleston, Greenville, Horry, Richland, and Spartanburg.

For more information on SC Stay Plus or housing assistance programs in the above-listed counties, including how to apply, click here.

These are the hourly wages needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment for South Carolina metropolitan areas.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston Waterkeeper says almost half of their testing sites in area waterways are not safe for swimming following recent storms and flooding throughout the Lowcountry.

After a week of heavy rain and flooding, Charleston Waterkeeper Andrew Wunderley said nine of their testing sites have tested above state limits for bacteria levels, including Filbin Creek in North Charleston, which tested nine times above the state standard.

“What we’re talking about with high bacteria levels are your risk of exposure to pathogens that can get you sick,” Wunderley said.

The organization released its weekly testing data Friday morning and said the results were striking.

Along with Filbin Creek, all of Shem Creek and Brittlebank Park all showed high bacteria levels, such as tuberculosis, cholera and staph.

Wunderley said the recent storms helped these levels rise to some of the highest they have been this summer.

“All of our stormwater and our floodwater drains away into a creek like Shem Creek or just like Filbin Creek,” he said. “Everything that’s on the ground goes along with it, so dog waste, wildlife waste, leaking septic tanks, overflowing sewers.”

Mount Pleasant resident Cory Sieburg said he will not be going into the water this weekend because of the bacteria levels. He pointed out a childhood incident that made him aware of water pollution levels.

“We moved from Chicago a few months ago, and Lake Michigan is kind of a dump, so a lot of the sewage is in there,” Sieburg recalled. “As a kid, I would go swimming in the water not knowing about any sort of high bacteria, and then, when I get home, I start throwing up, and it wasn’t a good time.”

Wunderley recommends people avoid these creeks and rivers for two days following a rainstorm. If they do go, he said to wash up and keep the water out of their mouth, nose and eyes.

“We see a real strong relationship between rainfall and tide stage and water quality,” Wunderley said, “and so outgoing tide, a lot of rain, that’s a recipe for very high pollution, very high bacteria in your creeks and rivers.”

Charleston Waterkeeper has put out a map of the areas deemed unsafe for swimming.

Wunderley also said people can help control bacteria levels by picking up their dog’s waste and regularly inspecting their septic tanks.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The Boeing Co. plant off International Drive in North Charleston has the go-ahead to start delivering its 787 Dreamliner commercial jets, but the program is anything but back to normal — at least financially.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved the process to restart deliveries more than a week ago after practically shutting down the program in March 2021 because of multiple production defects and lax inspections by Boeing workers. The problems actually date to before September 2020, when the safety regulator said it began investigating the manufacturing flaws. It finally pulled the plug half a year later.

The FAA still must sign off on each wide-body that’s delivered, but its overall seal of approval in late July seems to indicate the aerospace giant has gotten its act together.

Meanwhile, the problems tied to the 787 program have cost Boeing “lots of money” in missed pre-delivery payments, earnings and additional costs, as Richard Schuurman pointed out in a recent article for AirInsight.

Boeing previously reported that it would have to pay $2 billion in “abnormal costs” related to the program’s shutdown. Most of that will be incurred over the next year, but the planemaker said it has spent nearly $600 million in such costs through the first six months of 2022.

The program’s deferred production and tooling costs, which had been whittled down from nearly $32 billion while deliveries were taking place, now stand at a little more than $12 billion. Boeing — which uses a method called program accounting to spread out those costs — has said it will take 1,600 deliveries before the Dreamliner is profitable.

The good news is that the company has already delivered 1,006 of its South Carolina-made twin-aisle jets through May 2021. The bad? Boeing only has a backlog of 407 firm orders on the books — nearly 200 shy of the break-even point.

Even though Boeing has amassed 120 Dreamliners valued at about $25 billion in its inventory during the delivery pause, those aircraft are likely to go for less. Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag last week pegged the post-discount figure at $17 billion.

Brian West, Boeing’s chief financial officer, said during an earnings call July 27 that there will be “some variability in cash payments” when deliveries resume. That’s code for airlines getting financial compensation for having to wait on planes that should have been delivered by now.

“So, in the short term, it will be a little bumpy as we start to roll out the 87s,” West told analysts.

Boeing also lost customers, as the delays allowed them to cancel their 787 orders.

American Airlines is expected to be the first to get a Dreamliner once deliveries ramp up again, according to Reuters, which reported the delivery could take place as soon as this week. The Texas-based carrier said it expects to pick up nine 787s before the end of this year.

German carrier Lufthansa and British Airways are also expecting Dreamliner deliveries in the next few weeks.

West, the Boeing finance chief, declined to say how many 787s the company plans to turn over to customers through the end of the year.

“We want to get to one,” he said. “And we’re really excited to get to one as fast as we can. And once that plays out, we’ll get more visibility. But it’s a little too early to quantify that. Clearly, we’ve got an expectation that we’re going to liquidate some 87s over the course of the second half, but I’m just a little cautious to stick a number out there.”

Boeing has predicted that airlines worldwide will need 7,230 wide-body planes over the next 20 years. It’s hoping the Dreamliner family, which offers three variants in the roughly 250- to 350-seat range, will fill much of that demand.

Boeing last year consolidated production of 787s to North Charleston, shutting down a second production line in Everett, Wash. Since the FAA halted deliveries, the company scaled back production of the Dreamliner to one or two planes a month — down from 14 monthly split between the two sites in 2019, before the manufacturing defects came to light.

The planemaker has said it plans to boost production to five Dreamliners per month shortly after deliveries restart.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - More than 800 people have signed a petition to save a running track that is likely to be eliminated because of new editions at a North Charleston facility.

Improvements coming to the Danny Jones Athletic Facility will include a new aquatics center and a gymnasium. But with the new additions, City of North Charleston spokesperson Ryan Johnson said the footprint of the building will increase, leading to space constraints on the site, which will eliminate the track itself.

Johnson said the football field currently at the site will remain.

An area running club, the Park Circle Pacers, has 300 members, including 100 active members. They practice at the Danny Jones track regularly for their Tuesday evening workouts. Members of the group say that losing the track would be a huge loss for not only them, but for the whole community.

A walking and biking trail will surround the site, but members say that’s not enough.

Member Erin Atkinson said the track provides safety features that you can’t get while running on the street or sidewalks.

“The hazards that I see every day, between sidewalks not being cleared, having debris or trash there, motorists not paying attention, or sometimes being hostile towards runners or walkers,” Atkinson said. “Having an area like this where you can just focus on your workout and getting in some fitness without having to worry about your safety is key.”

Brian Johnson is a cross country and track and field coach at Academic Magnet. To Johnson, losing the track would make it harder for his team to get to a facility to practice since the track is close to their school now.

“So many times, you have teenagers traveling to go practice somewhere,” Johnson said. “That adds a liability.”

Michelle Huntley isn’t part of the running group but lives a half mile away in Park Circle. She said when she walks or drives by the track, she sees people utilizing it morning, noon, and night.

“You just don’t see that with other recreation facilities, something that’s used so frequently,” Huntley said.

The city said the projected completion time for the project is late 2023.

“To lose this track would be a travesty,” said Lionel Adams, at-large director for the Road Runners Club of America. “We just can’t see this empowering everyone to run if this is missing.”

Members say they plan on speaking at the next North Charleston City Council meeting.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - This summer students are offering their time and energy to visit and help other communities for what they’re calling a “Week of Hope.”

The mission trip organization Group Cares has nearly 2,700 students participating in volunteer work this year. They come from across the country to new places and get to know locals, working on whatever projects need some manpower.

In North Charleston, these volunteers are spending a couple of days clearing out lots owned by Liberty Hill Redevelopment Group, to help the community maximize the use of their land.

Elijah Shreffler, a 14-year-old volunteer, says he wanted to give back to a new community and meet new people.

“It’s very inspirational because after all this work and progress you realize what you can do with just a couple of people and a little bit of time,” Shreffler says.

Micah Braznell, a 12-year-old, says his youth group was singing up and he felt like he needed to be a part of something bigger than himself.

“The guys that we were helping out, they were dumbfounded that we could do all this in such a short amount of time,” Braznell said.

Craig Mitchell with the Liberty Hill Redevelopment Group called the volunteers “worker bees,” saying he’s never seen more enthusiastic and hard-working people. Now, he calls them his friends and hopes they can stay in touch to follow how the neighborhood grows.

“We met new friends over these last couple of days and we are going to ensure that we keep the relationship and maybe one day we can go to their neighborhoods and help them because it’s our turn today and maybe tomorrow it’s theirs,” Mitchell says.

Austin Vansparrentak, an 18-year-old, says it’s been a fun experience doing yard work and solving problems while knowing they are accomplishing the community’s goals.

“Someone drove past us and they were asking us what we were doing and we told them and they were so thankful for how much we were helping out. It means a lot, especially with how much history this neighborhood has in the state,” Vansparrentak said.

Liberty Hill Redevelopment Group members say they are grateful to the group for coming to Charleston and hope to work with Group Cares again to better more communities in Charleston and across the country.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.