CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Since 1978, for more than four decades, the Sea Island Habitat for Humanity has been a mainstay in the Lowcountry.

Three hundred seventy-six homes were built for those struggling with finances.

That work continues with seven total homes planned for 2022, and hopefully another nine for 2023.

Despite a successful track record, not everything goes perfectly for the non-profit.

"I think the biggest factor we face is an infrastructure challenge," says John Rhoden, the organization's Executive Director.

Rhoden has noticed some spots in recent years are tougher to build on due to a lack of a sewage system.

The Town of Hollywood unfortunately is one of those places.

It can be costly to build close to where the sewer lines are.

The Town's Planning director, Roy DeHaven, tells us, "The issue seems to be the distance from the gravity sewer lines. Most of the properties close to the sewer lines are very expensive on the land cost."

However, DeHaven says the town is working with Habitat to deal with some of those troubles.

Rhoden understands the difficulties.

"Perfect world in our scenario, I think we would have more sewer systems in place. And that's not a quick fix."

Other issues include property value costs.

Rhoden says, "As we are finding land so expensive and so hard to get on James Island, Johns Island, we're moving further and further away from Charleston."

But Habitat has two communities, Hollywood and Ravenel, who welcome the non-profit and both say they have a great working relationship with Habitat.

However, other obstacles have plagued the non-profit in recent years; most notably, Covid.

During the pandemic's height, around half of the home builds had to stop due to a volunteer shortage.

Good news- the volunteers are back in near pre-Covid numbers, allowing planned projects to resume while taking on new ones.

The Roof Repair Rally is a fundraiser to help the Sea Islands Habitat for Humanity fix up non-Habitat homes' roofs.

Last year, 31 were fixed for people dealing with income crisis. This year, they aim to match that. But, they need donations to pull the plan off.

Last year, Environment America, a federation of environmental advocacy organizations, ranked the most unsafe beaches in the country based on tests run in 2020.

That year, a total of 23 beaches were tested for fecal indicator bacteria in the state of South Carolina.

Out of four tested counties in South Carolina, the average percentage of potentially unsafe days in South Carolina by county in 2020 ranked Beaufort County as the second safest.

The four South Carolina counties that were tested were Horry, Charleston, Beaufort and Georgetown counties.

The scoring left Beaufort County with a 12% average number of days with potentially unsafe water for beaches in the county.

Comparatively, Horry County, which contains Myrtle Beach, scored a 34% average for potentially unsafe water for beach days.

Not a title to brag about, South Carolina’s own Myrtle Beach scored number one in the state for the most potentially unsafe swimming days in 2020. The testing conducted in Myrtle Beach resulted in potentially unsafe water 84% of the days tested. This average was a result of 70 potentially unsafe days out of 82 testing days.

Contrarily, North Myrtle Beach scored considerably better than its slightly southern counterpart, coming in at 34%, indicating 29 potentially unsafe days out of 87 testing days.

“While we were not able to pinpoint pollution sources for any particular beach, sewage overflows, stormwater runoff, and manure from factory farms, all contain fecal bacteria,” said John Rumpler, the clean water program director at Environment America.

Hilton Head Island tied for the safest number of days along with Isle of Palms and Seabrook Island, both in Charleston County, with a 20% indicator of potentially unsafe days. This comes from two potentially unsafe days out of 10 testing days.

This comes as no surprise as in 2019, Environment America ranked Beaufort County as a clean beach area yet again. In the study, 28 beaches in Beaufort County were tested, and only seven of those had even one “potentially unsafe” day, the report said.

Each beach in the county was tested for 10 or 11 days. Four of the seven beaches were on Hilton Head Island; two were on Harbor Island; one was on Hunting Island, according to a previous Island Packet report.

As for the 2020 report released last year, Myrtle Beach’s reported 84% of potentially unsafe days was one of the biggest percentages in the study, but not the highest overall in the U.S.

Cole Park in Nueces County, Texas scored a 91% average of potentially unsafe days, being broken down by 62 potentially unsafe days in 2020 out of 68 testing days.

Nye Beach in Lincoln County, Oregon scored a 90% average with nine potentially unsafe days out of 10 different testing days.

This story was originally published September 2, 2022 5:00 AM.

When public health scientist Hermes Florez, M.D., Ph.D., decided to move from Miami, where Latinos are the majority, to Charleston, where they make up a much smaller percentage of the population, some friends were surprised.

“A lot of my former mentors said, ‘Are you sure that that's the right move for you? And I said, ‘Why not? It's a great opportunity.’ There are a lot of misconceptions about the deep South. I realized that Charleston is quite diverse and you really can embrace those values.”

Florez, born in Venezuela, is proud to be part of that diversity. “I am very honored to be a champion for Hispanic heritage,” he said, as the nation prepared to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Florez brings that sensibility to his role as chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he works to improve the health of people of all backgrounds.

“I fully embrace diversity, equity and inclusion in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the College of Medicine’s initiatives. I’ve had the opportunity to address some of the challenges that the Hispanic community has for access to care with my work at the free medical clinic on Johns Island and for the prevention and management of diseases that are more prevalent in Hispanics such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”

Florez, an endocrinologist, volunteers at the Barrier Islands Free Medical Clinic on Fridays. He also sees patients at the Ralph H. Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. That’s on top of his busy schedule leading the public health sciences department, where he has overseen important changes during his first two years.

“The department has stepped up to the plate to fulfill its academic mission. We have gone through the accreditation of our public health program, national accreditation with the Council of Education for Public Health. We have also improved in our ranking on NIH funding,” Florez said, referring to the National Institutes of Health. The NIH funds research through grants to institutions such as MUSC.

“We moved from No. 20 in public health funding from the NIH nationwide to No. 16. That’s a great team effort. I'm not taking credit except that I'm a cheerleader I promote and provide any resources that we have at the chair's office.”

He’s currently waiting to hear if the NIH will fund a proposal to enhance MUSC’s recruitment of minority faculty in biomedical research. “This is going to be a $10 million of energy investment for our faculty across all the colleges. This was an initiative with all the deans expressing support for great research team from different clusters,” Florez said.

“We have the cancer and inflammation. We have the aging and neuroscience. We have cardio metabolic health, and also the population health and data science, unique strengths that we have in MUSC. And I was blessed to be part of the team leading the efforts for a successful submission. So hopefully in a few months, we'll see the response. But I said to the team, regardless of whether we get the funding, I'm willing to invest $1 million on my chair package toward that.”

Florez is also trying to get young more people from minority groups interested in public health science. “We go to the high schools here. You go to the community. You incentivize them. You say, you have the opportunity to participate in topnotch research at MUSC and obviously with other academic partners across the state then you sort of nurture them through college, and then eventually they will come hopefully to any of these colleges in MUSC and maybe do graduate studies, postgraduate training, and then the pipeline for minority faculty. And then we have the critical mass.”

Florez said his department is already expanding its programs, preparing to offer a master of public health degree online and a certificate in population health. “Those are among the ways to address the needs of the workforce training in South Carolina and beyond.”

Public health science involves preventing diseases, helping people live longer and improving health by addressing environmental threats. It uses a combination of epidemiology, biostatistics and health services to achieve those goals. Florez has a strategy to bring together more experts in those areas. “We're building the team, addressing the needs on environmental health and all these different omics: genomics, metabolomics, you name it.”

As he builds that team, he’s leading by example. “It is important to give the opportunity to minority faculty, staff, students and community partners to appreciate that one of their own, in this case a Hispanic public health physician scientist, can respond to the call to serve as a leader.”

MUSC’s new chair of public health sciences is honored to appear on national list of inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists.

Residents of Chimney Cove Village, a low-income apartment complex on Hilton Head Island, will not be evicted this month as planned, according to a letter they received from management.

The eviction notices they received Aug. 12 have been rescinded and their leases will continue, at least for now. Most resident were given 30 days notice, meaning they had until Sept. 12 to move.

Sandy Gillis of the Deep Well Project, a nonprofit group that provides food and housing aid to islanders in need, said residents informed her of new notices from property manager John Sinadinos taped to their doors around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“Please be advised that the notices of termination you received earlier this month are hereby rescinded,” the notices read. “Your leases continue in full force and effect.”

“We are currently working out the details, I can provide a better update soon,” Sandy Johal, who owns Chimney Cove along with her husband Sam, told The Island Packet. She had no further comment.

The letters distributed to residents were printed in English and Spanish. The Aug. 12 eviction notices were printed only in English, despite many of Chimney Cove’s roughly 300 tenants being native Spanish speakers. Many complained that they were not given enough notice to move out and had no where else to go.

Residents are still required to pay September rent, despite previously being told they wouldn’t have to pay for the month, Gillis said.

The Rev. June Wilkins, pastor of the Christ Lutheran Church neighboring Chimney Cove, said she doesn’t want to see tenants “jerked around” by management.

Residents have received no information on whether the sale of the property that prompted the original eviction notices has been postponed or scrapped entirely, Wilkins said. Questions remain on whether the reprieve is temporary or if residents should continue looking for other housing.

After the original eviction notices were posted, Gillis and Wilkins created a fund to help tenants of Chimney Cove find housing. The Town of Hilton Head have called a special town council meeting on Sept. 6 to address the sudden evictions and brainstorm solutions with organizations and community leaders.

The town has been “monitoring the situation” and acknowledged the impact displacing Chimney Cove’s tenants would have on affordable housing across the island. Chimney Cove has served as a low-income housing complex since 1973, and losing any housing for working islanders would further strain their already limited options.

When the Johals originally purchased the property in 2016, they evicted the tenants to make room for seasonal workers from Jamaica who traveled with H-2B visas, permitting them to work temporary, non-agricultural jobs in the U.S.

Losing Chimney Cove would be especially challenging since the town’s North End workforce housing development won’t begin construction until 2023.

Lower home prices were identified as a critical need as early as 2018, when the town completed an assessment of housing options on Hilton Head. At the time, the two fastest-growing income brackets on the island were those who made more than $150,000 a year and those who made less than $25,000.

“Higher-income households can put upward pressure on prices and rents, putting housing further out of reach for those with more modest incomes,” the report read.

This story was originally published September 1, 2022 11:41 AM.

This Labor Day weekend is full of exciting concerts, dances and the outdoors. Check out the Lowcountry Jazz Festival, shag on Edisto, and enjoy concerts at Johns Island County Park and at The Joe to say goodbye to summer.

Toast Under the Oaks

Celebrate the end of summer under the oaks at Johns Island County Park. Enjoy live music and food trucks on Sept. 1 and 15 from 5-7 p.m. This week’s performer is Charleston local Grace Trice, and food is provided by Kees Kitchen and Mac Daddy. No outside food and drinks are allowed, but leashed dogs are; guests are encouraged to bring chairs and tables. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

To purchase tickets online, go to bit.ly/3wERBrU.

Lowcountry Jazz Festival

Come out to the Charleston Gaillard Center and listen to stellar jazz performances while helping raise money for a good cause. From Sept. 2-4, proceeds from the Jazz Festival will go to Closing the Gap in Health Care Inc. and the Thaddeus John Bell, M.D. Endowment Fund for students pursuing a career in health science. The festival starts with a white party on Sept. 2 at the Gaillard’s Center Grand Ballroom followed by two days of smooth jazz on Sept. 3-4. Performers include Robert Glasper, Norman Brown and Marcus Miller, among others.

Tickets for the festival start at $68 plus fees, and white party tickets must be purchased separately. To purchase tickets for the event, go to bit.ly/3Tuoodd.

Shag Festival

Shag the day away at the Edisto Beach Shag Festival. From Sept. 2-4 listen to some of the top beach bands, watch the best shaggers in the Southeast show off their skills, shop arts and craft vendors, get a shag lesson and more at Bay Creek Park on Edisto. Daily entrance costs $15, or you can get a weekend pass for $40.

To view the events happening each day as well as the hours, go to bit.ly/3AWzOzd. To purchase tickets online, visit bit.ly/3PYXyqr.

Labor Day concert

The city of Charleston is making up for it’s canceled Fourth of July celebration with a special free-to-attend Labor Day concert featuring the Charleston Symphony at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park. Gates open at 6 p.m. Sept. 5, and the symphony starts at 8 p.m. Stick around after the music for food and a free fireworks show.

While the event is free, advanced reservations are needed. You can book them at bit.ly/3TpvijP.

Tuffy the Tiger

If you’re looking for a free family event, head over to the Flowertown Players the first Saturday of each month through February for Tuffy the Tiger. The live action puppet-based performances encourage positive life lessons through the use of the orange Tuffy the Tiger.

The performances are 30 minutes; afterward, children can make their own puppets and have a chance to meet Tuffy. Showtime is at 11 a.m. and reservations can be made at flowertownplayers.org/services-4.