COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - If you have an idea on how to make South Carolina better for its children or concerns about issues affecting them, your opinion is wanted.

The Joint Citizens and Legislative Committee on Children is traveling around the state for its annual fall tour, starting next week, and is inviting South Carolinians to speak with them.

The panel, more commonly known as the Children’s Committee, is made up of a bipartisan group of six lawmakers — three from the state’s House of Representatives and three from the Senate — along with three citizens appointed by the governor and the heads of statewide agencies, including the Department of Mental Health, Department of Social Services, Department of Juvenile Justice, and Department of Education.

The feedback they have received during these hearings in past years had led to new laws at the State House.

“If whatever you’re talking about has merit, you have the opportunity to change legislation in South Carolina,” Sen. Katrina Shealy, R – Lexington and a committee member, said.

In recent years, the committee’s work has resulted in legislation to improve South Carolina’s adoption and fostering processes, put more regulations around vaping and offer paid family leave to state employees.

“What the committee’s charged with is to really address issues that affect children in the state of South Carolina,” Rep. Beth Bernstein, D – Richland, and a committee member, said. “It’s an opportunity for you to express concerns that you may have that are really relevant to what this committee’s charged with doing, and it might be an issue that we’re not even aware of.”

While most of the committee’s meetings during the year take place on State House grounds in Columbia, its fall hearing schedule gives members the chance to hear from more South Carolinians in other parts of the state.

The public hearings begin next Tuesday in Florence, followed by one in North Charleston on Sept. 22, in Greenville on Sept. 29, and two in Columbia on Oct. 12.

Any South Carolinian can come out to share their concerns or ideas for helping the state’s kids and families.

“We take that and evaluate it, and then we look toward how we can help in those areas, and then we try to craft legislation,” Bernstein said.

“And that way, we can have people working on it on both sides of the aisle,” Shealy added.

People can sign up to speak for up to five minutes at each meeting by emailing [email protected]. They can also send written comments to that email address.

The deadline to submit written testimony is Oct. 14.

“There are children all over the state that need our help, so we need to hear what would be beneficial for every child in South Carolina,” Shealy said.

Times/locations for Children’s Committee 2022 Fall Hearings:

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

NORTH CHARLESTON — One day, a 7-year-old Michael Nesbitt walked into an appliance store at the Pinehaven Shopping Center with his parents.

This was in the early 1960s, an era when the civil rights movement was sweeping through the country. Cities everywhere, including Charleston and its surrounding communities, were slowly integrating public spaces.

Nesbitt’s father, Johnny, had wanted to make a purchase at the store, which sold household items like washing machines, dryers and refrigerators. But he couldn’t. A White male store worker told Johnny Nesbitt — a truck driver for 45 years who never missed a day, his son said — that he couldn’t buy the item because the father didn’t have any credit.

The Nesbitt family left the store empty-handed.

A few years later, that incident lingered in the back of the child’s mind when Nesbitt, then 9, watched construction crews clearing homes in Union Heights to make way for the incoming Interstate 26. The highway — the portion from Columbia to Charleston was completed in 1969 — was constructed during a time when “urban renewal” road projects were built throughout Black communities, causing economic and physical damage.

The interstate’s Exit 218 at Spruill Avenue split Union Heights in half. The neighborhood, founded shortly after the Civil War by freed slaves who settled on an abandoned plantation, lost businesses, homes and houses of worship. Furthermore, the project disrupted the community’s cohesiveness and vibrancy.

“I thought to myself, ‘Here they go again — White folks are taking stuff from us,’” said Nesbitt, now 64, recalling how the highway project displaced his aunt’s sweet shop and his family’s church, Francis Brown United Methodist. “We just felt like we were being infringed upon.”

Today, decades later, there is a chance at stitching Union Heights back together while also making good use of the now-vacant Exit 218 property by creating affordable housing on the site. And government officials have a chance to, in a way, right a past wrong. But the effort will have its challenges — mainly in keeping the new houses affordable in the community that has seen property values rapidly rise.

Coming up with a plan

The S.C. Department of Transportation is in the process of transferring to the city ownership of the former site of the interstate exit, now an empty stretch of land between Joppa and Irving avenues.

The ramp was removed during construction of the Port Access Road that leads to the new Leatherman Terminal. A quitclaim deed has been submitted to the Charleston County Register of Deeds office, according to DOT. The transfer of the property was an environmental commitment noted in the community mitigation plan for the port project.

The former highway ramp is now open land with overgrown vegetation. Houses on the north and south sides of the neighborhood — once divided by infrastructure — are now visible to each other. The idea is to fill the empty strip with new homes and mend the once divided neighborhood.

The North Charleston-based Coastal Community Foundation has taken the lead on drafting a preliminary plan for the site. For the past few years, the foundation has been engaged in community conversations up and down the South Carolina coast with neighborhoods to get a sense of the most important needs.

“In those conversations, one of the key areas that came up time and again was affordable housing,” CCF program officer Kaela Hammond told dozens of people during an Aug. 23 Union Heights neighborhood meeting.

Since 2017, the foundation has partnered with Boeing to work with local organizations to help implement affordable housing in North Charleston neighborhoods. To that end, the foundation partnered with F.A. Johnson II, a developer who has been dubbed CCF’s technical adviser, to survey potential properties for new homes.

“One site that kept coming up throughout all the community conversations we had was the former Exit 218,” Hammond said.

CCF’s role in all of this is to bring together community groups — such as Habitat For Humanity, the Community First Land Trust and others — to help create a vision for the site.

“Our goal is to bring those partners together with community residents to make sure that this property is developed in a way that’s respectful of the community fabric, your history here, and that’s really driven by community input,” Hammond told residents at the meeting.

Johnson concurred.

“The real big question is how do we keep this in quasi-public hands?” he said. “Certainly a private developer could come in, purchase it and do something that’s not consistent (with) what goals and objectives may be communitywide.”

The city seems to be amenable to CCF’s proposal. Councilman Michael Brown called the idea a “good plan” and said the overall goal for the Exit 218 property is to see affordable housing on the site.

Making the homes affordable

The challenge remains in how these organizations can keep newly built homes at a reasonable price.

The proposal, which is not finalized, was presented during the Aug. 23 meeting to solicit community feedback before it is presented to the city for consideration. It calls for 30 houses across the 2-acre lot. Roughly $3.6 million to $4.1 million would likely need to be raised as subsidy to build the homes at affordable levels, Johnson said.

The cheapest range proposed for the houses was $154,000 to $220,000. That’s for a single-family household making $51,000 to $73,000, which is 80 percent of the Charleston area median income, Johnson said.

Many residents said the proposed price range is not based on a realistic assessment of the incomes of the people in Union Heights. Doris Ferguson said she is concerned that those who rent houses in the neighborhood wouldn’t be able to afford to buy the new homes, if they’re ever built.

“You should base it on the income of the people here if you want to give us a chance,” Ferguson said.

Other concerns, like flooding, were also raised. The neighborhood is known to see high water levels when it rains. Residents at the meeting said they have complained about flooding for years, but nothing has been done to fix the problem. New homes will only exacerbate the issue, they said.

The North Charleston-based Community First Land Trust, a local organization formed several years ago with the goal of creating affordable housing in communities, could play a role in keeping the homes affordable.

More than 200 land trusts exist nationwide, and they are designed to help low-income homeowners build equity.

Typically, the land trust first obtains the land. It then engages a contractor to build homes on the properties. People then buy the homes at reasonable prices, but the trust keeps the land so that residents are not displaced.

The Community First trust has a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Through their collaboration, Habitat has already built two homes in the neighborhood on lots owned by the trust. Two more homes are in the works.

The houses will sell for about $160,000, said Skip Mikell, who’s with the land trust and also serves as president of the Union Heights neighborhood association.

The Exit 218 project could be an effort to help fend off gentrification, something that has already touched the community that is increasingly seeing more White homeowners and new development on the fringes.

Like several other neighborhoods between Charleston and North Charleston in what is known as the Neck Area, Union Heights has seen property values skyrocket due to developmental pressure from areas both north and south of its boundaries.

Nesbitt said he, like other Union Heights homeowners, get calls almost daily from people seeking to buy and likely flip the property for large profits.

“The calls have become borderline harassment,” Nesbitt said.

Some in the neighborhood are excited about the prospect of getting the Exit 218 land returned to the community.

“I was excited about the fact that we could knit our community back,” said Henrietta Woodward. “Why should we not get that property back?”

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — How long would you wait for that the right new sofa or kitchen table? Some customers of a North Charleston furniture store say they’ve been waiting for two years now and claim they’re getting the runaround.

ABC News 4 received multiple reports directly to our newsroom of this, and one we found was Goose Creek mother and daughter Brittany and Shelby Fox.

“We're gonna tell the story start to finish, and you know, just cut out the nonsense,” Brittany Fox said.

On January 15, 2021, the Foxes bought a new dresser online from Home Décor Outlets from its North Charleston location. But the process of getting the furniture to their doorstep took longer than they expected.

“They told me after the first [of February] that it would get delivered. It never came,” Shelby said. “There was one contact where they said something about there was going to be a delay with the dresser could be up to six months.”

So, the mother and daughter waited. And waited.

“I have to chase them,” Shelby said. Then waited some more.

“It was just dead silence from there,” Brittany said.

Now, almost two years later – they still have nothing. They said there was one constant throughout the process: “The runaround was consistent.”

No furniture or money received by the family. Besides the receipt they have from their purchase, the only thing they say they actually got from Home Décor Outlets: Ads.

“[They were] trying to sell me a mattress,” Shelby said. “Yeah, spamming my phone pretty much. But never offering money back.”

As the time went by and the furniture had yet to arrive, the Foxes turned positions and tried to get their money back. Only to find out: “They could not refund my debit card.”

The Foxes say the company told them they had a no-refund policy and the only possible way to get one was to fill out a form and apply, where the refund would only be granted under certain occasions. The whole concept was something that confused the Foxes.

“We never even got a product at this point. It's not even a refund, it's a cancellation,” Brittany Fox said.

So I tried to get in touch with the company. I called the executive board, the phone numbers listed at their corporate websites and the phone number for the North Charleston store location. But all the phone numbers either went straight to voicemail or to dial tone alerting the phone had been disconnected.

After more than an hour, I gave up calling, got in the car and took a trip to the North Charleston store location.

It was the same thing customers like Brittany and Shelby Fox did after having their attempts at communication fall through. But much like the Foxes, when I arrived, I realized there were going to be no answers.

The store was closed with no furniture. Instead, just the remnants of a business.

So why was this the case? I did some digging and found the company had its Better Business Bureau accreditation revoked in January of 2022 for not responding to claims like the Foxes' and others that came in to government offices.

“We had eight complaints over the course of the last six years,” said Bailey Parker, Communications Director for the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs. “I'd say the majority of them came in from 2020 to 2022.”

But even the SC Department of Consumer Affairs had a problem contacting Home Décor Outlets.

“They were not getting back to us on a number of these complaints and didn't ever respond to the initial point of contact from us.”

After some more digging, we found out in February of 2022, the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Furthermore, just days after the interview with the Foxes, they received a letter from Georgia’s bankruptcy court suggesting the Home Décor Outlets convert from chapter 11 to chapter 7 bankruptcy. It would mean the company would have to close all their stores and liquidate their assets.

However, the documents still give no timetable on when these claims will be resolved and if any money is guaranteed to these customers.

“Consumers are most likely not going to be the ones that get paid back. First, it's going to be the other major creditors that they probably owe debt to,” Parker said.

We also learned from the Georgia Court of Bankruptcy, the company received loans through Covid relief, which they are required to pay 20 percent back, as well as general business loans, and they have missed 15 out of 19 payments -- not a good sign for customers.

“At the end of the day, if they don't have money, they don't have anything left, they can't pay,” Parker said.

So what are these customers options at this point?

“The only options that a consumer would have is taking the business to magistrates court, which in my opinion, is not a great option,” Parker said.

The money spent on attorneys for magistrate court could be larger than the money lost in some of these claims. Parker does say waiting to see the results of the bankruptcy court might be the best option.

Meanwhile, the Foxes ended up finding a suitable replacement dresser elsewhere. But still, after going through this whole experience, they left one piece of advice for any consumers in the state.

“Don’t just check the reviews on the product, check the reviews on the business.”

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Nearly 400 people came out to walk Sunday morning in support of the food bank’s efforts to combat food insecurity.

People across the Lowcountry are walking together to fight hunger.

“We have about 375 local community members walking to take a stance in the fight against hunger,” Lowcountry Food Bank development officer Alexis Barbalace said, “as well as raise some much-needed funds for the Lowcountry Food Bank.”

Those funds will help the food bank continue serving up meals to the 10 coastal counties they serve.

“The need is as big as it’s ever been,” Lowcountry Food Bank president and CEO Nick Osborne said, “I mean, we’re looking at about 160,000 people in those 10 counties that we serve that are going hungry.”

Lowcountry Food Bank officials say food insecurity is an issue that affects everyone.

“That’s seniors,” Osborne said, “that’s children and that’s families in general.”

Which is why the food bank hosted Sunday’s walk, to help spread awareness.

“Doing an event like this brings everyone together,” Osborne said, “and just the sense of opportunity that presents is incredible.”

Walkers say they enjoyed their mile-long trek through Wannamaker County Park.

“It was actually pretty relaxing and fun,” Walk to Fight Hunger participant Jaden Smith said.

Because they know it’s for a great cause.

“In all the communities I’ve been,” participant Kaitlin McNeill said, “I’ve noticed just a lot of people that are either on the streets or aren’t doing that well and wanted to just help in some way.”

Several Lowcountry organizations participated in the event as well.

“When we first heard that our friends over at the Lowcountry Food Bank were doing this event,” Carolina Youth Development Center director of education Joni Perkins said, “we were really excited. They are someone that we partner with quite often.”

All walking together to fight hunger.

“I feel very proud and involved in the community,” Mirabel Prim said, “because it’s not every day that you get to do something as impactful to the community as this.”

The 2nd annual Walk to Fight Hunger raised over $90,000.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Department of Transportation is looking for the community’s input as developers continue to move forward with the I-526 Lowcountry Corridor West Project.

There will be a community mitigation meeting in North Charleston Saturday where project directors will update the public on their plan and give them time to ask questions.

According to the project’s official website, it would span approximately 9.7 miles between Paul Cantrell Boulevard in West Ashley and Virginia Avenue in North Charleston.

Project Director Joy Riley says the purpose of the meeting is to update the public on the community mitigation plan. Riley says this is their way of creating benefits for the communities that will be directly impacted by the project.

Russelldale, Ferndale, Liberty Park and Highland Terrace are the communities that will be directly impacted. These are predominantly minority communities.

Riley says over the last three years they have been checking in with those communities and are trying to make sure the community mitigation plan addresses their concerns.

Residents have shared one of their biggest concerns is losing their homes due to the widening of the 526/I-26 interchange.

Riley says a lot of the programs in the community mitigation plan are focused on increasing things like generational wealth, building affordable housing, scholarships, and job training opportunities.

About 100 households will be torn down for this project. Riley says construction won’t get started until all residents have been relocated to replacement housing they are planning on building.

“We are planning on building 100 new apartment units that are affordable but also 45 single-family lots with single-family homes, and a first-time home buyer grant program that helps those folks that are low income,” Riley says.

Although widening the interstate will get rid of homes in the area, officials believe it will help limit travel times, congestion and more.

Devin Clark, a West Ashley resident, says he sees accidents all the time on the 526/I-26 interchange, and it often takes 20 minutes or more to go a few miles. Clark says he’s happy SCDOT is planning on doing something about it.

Saturday’s meeting starts at 10 a.m. at the Ferndale Community Center in North Charleston.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.