“People want to be near a walkable, safe downtown, so it’s become an attractive neighborhood to be in,” he said, referring specifically to the West End, one of the city’s most-transformed special emphasis neighborhoods. “In the areas that have not been restabilized before 2010, those were the most vulnerable.”
The special emphasis designation itself was created in part to assist established low-income residents in marginalized communities remain in place as the city grew, he said.
In partnership with neighborhood leaders, the city made an effort to stabilize parts of Black neighborhoods that had experienced decades of neglect and disinvestment, including assisting in the addition of 400 new homes in West Greenville.
But, as reflected in the Furman data, the city’s efforts have not been enough to stave off the displacement of working-class people, pushed from their homes when the value of the ground beneath their feet skyrocketed.
“Where we did stabilize, when we go back to those neighborhoods, they’ve pretty much withstood gentrification,” White said. “It’s really more where they were not fully stabilized. Income levels, Black versus White, means we have to work harder to get more true affordable housing.”
Where each of the neighborhoods stands in the ongoing process of gentrification varies.
Those closer to downtown Greenville — the hub for investment where property values have exponentially ballooned — are further along in the process. Those in less-advanced stages are seeing the pressures radiating out from downtown.
For communities like Haynie-Sirrine and the West End, which have effectively become extensions of downtown, the process is largely complete.
West Greenville is among the historically Black neighborhoods in Greenville in which established, low-income residents are being forced out by surging development pressures. Conor Hughes/Staff
The Black population in those neighborhoods dropped 84 percent and 73 percent, respectively, between 1990 and 2020. In the same time period, the number of White residents jumped 166 percent in Haynie-Sirrine and increased about 12-fold in the West End.
