Homelessness remains a complex problem that cannot be solved alone.
Hundreds of people across Greenville lack a safe and stable place to live. Economic hardship, lack of affordable housing, health issues and other factors can cause a person to experience homelessness.
Greenville Together launched in spring 2025 with a mission to functionally end homelessness in Greenville. The community-driven initiative brought together a cross-section of service providers, business leaders, city officials, community partners and people who have experienced homelessness to accomplish this goal.
In 2025, the effort helped 90 households consisting of 154 people move into permanent housing, led advocacy efforts to support unsheltered individuals, collected monthly data on the local homeless population and engaged with members of the community.
These efforts were guided by a one-year action plan, developed by a community task force in 2024. The initiative, hosted by United Way of Greenville County, spent the past year implementing the strategies outlined within the action plan.
“We weren’t sure what this exactly was going to look like,” said Cody Carver, director of Greenville Together. “We have it all written out and designed in an action plan, but when it came to putting it into practice, it was unprecedented for us.”
Housing surge
The primary strategy outlined in Greenville Together’s one-year action plan was to launch a housing surge that would quickly rehouse unsheltered individuals. The initiative’s goal was to rehouse 80 households by December 2025. Triune Mercy Center was selected to implement and manage the housing surge.
The housing surge kicked off last summer using a “street-to-home” strategy. This approach was designed to move chronically homeless and medically fragile individuals identified by outreach teams and the Greenville Police Department directly into permanent housing.
“We believe that housing is the first stop to stability and that housing is a human right,” Carver said. “Our most urgent priority once receiving a referral was getting that individual into a permanent housing setting and oftentimes that happened in two weeks or less after receiving the referrals.”
Last year, the organization deployed 45 Housing Choice Vouchers in partnership with the Greenville Housing Authority, Greenville Housing Fund and United Way of Greenville County. The initiative designed a second component of the housing surge that focused on moving individuals staying in temporary shelters into permanent housing using the vouchers.
Twenty-four landlords and housing providers worked with Greenville Together on the housing surge, providing 127 residential units for the program. Caver explained that short-term financial assistance was also used to cover expenses that served as barriers to moving into a permanent home, such as security deposits, application fees or past-due bills.
Greenville Together plans to enhance its housing surge program this year and move a total of 130 households living on the street or in temporary shelters into permanent housing. Carver said they will expand the program’s “shelter-to-home” approach and prioritize rehousing families with children.
“We really look to just expand everything that we’ve learned in 2025 into a permanent operating model in Greenville,” Carver said. “This is no longer just a pilot program or a demonstration project but rather a permanent way of getting folks off of our streets in Greenville.”
Advocacy efforts
As Greenville Together was getting off the ground, city leaders began considering an ordinance to prohibit individuals from lying down or residing on public property in Greenville. The proposed anti-camping law was introduced in June 2025, but received swift pushback from the community.
The item was postponed to allow the city to conduct additional research and consult with local homeless service providers. Carver said Greenville Together saw it as an opportunity to have a voice at the table to ensure the ordinance was compassionate to those experiencing homelessness and connected them to available services.
Greenville City Council approved the amended anti-camping ordinance in November. Individuals will be prohibited from using public property in the city for living purposes. Specifically, the ordinance bans people from sleeping for more than two hours, setting up bedding or tents, storing personal belongings or using a structure or vehicle for habitation in city parks.
Carver said they were able to negotiate specific requirements that must be met before the ordinance can go into effect. These requirements include developing a day services center, installing 24-hour public restrooms, extending street outreach efforts, creating secure storage for personal belongings and more.
“These requirements are critical elements of our response system that otherwise wouldn’t be getting the attention, funding and resources without the ordinance,” Carver said.
Greenville Together plans to work with the city to implement the requirements outlined in the anti-camping ordinance.
Housing assessment
More housing options are needed in Greenville for individuals who are working to exit homelessness. The majority of the options available for unsheltered individuals are temporary housing, such as emergency shelters or transitional housing. Carver said the aim is to increase the amount of permanent housing options in the area.
Permanent supportive housing provides more than just a roof over someone’s head. This housing type offers wraparound support services and case management to help individuals exiting homelessness achieve long-term stability.
“By placing somebody into housing and giving them that residential stability, that then allows them to have the mental bandwidth and capacity and the freedom to focus on the other areas of their life to help them reach self-sufficiency and stability,” Carver said.
United Housing Connection’s Church Street Place is an example of permanent supportive housing in Greenville. The facility offers 36 housing units for individuals who have been chronically homeless and suffer from mental illness.
Greenville Together plans to complete a permanent supportive housing needs assessment this year. Carver said the assessment will examine how much permanent supportive housing currently exists in Greenville, analyze the housing need based on the local population and identify ways to close the gap.
Community connections
Greenville Together hopes to reshape the narrative around homelessness by engaging and educating members in the local community.
In 2025, the initiative held a series of community conversations to create a platform for open dialogue with residents and local stakeholders. Carver said the plan is to continue connecting with the public to shift the conversation surrounding homelessness away from blame and toward understanding.
Community members were also encouraged to get involved with the group by volunteering for the initiative’s monthly street counts. Greenville Together launched the monthly street counts in May 2025 to gather empirical data on the homeless population within the city.
The collected data is used to respond and shift its strategies for addressing homelessness in real time, Carver said. The initiative plans to continue conducting its monthly street counts in 2026.
Overall, Carver feels proud of what Greenville Together was able to accomplish in its first year. He said the initiative will continue to show up and do whatever it takes to help get people off the streets in Greenville.
“We are incredibly proud of our team but are also just blown away at the transformative power that we have when we come together as a community and really believe in bold, innovative solutions,” Carver said.
2026 Priorities
Greenville Together has four key strategic priorities for 2026.
- Continue to house individuals experiencing homelessness
- Strengthen the local crisis response system for homelessness (expand day services, launch outreach teams)
- Build stronger relationships with landlords and housing provider partners
- Conduct a permanent supportive housing needs assessment
Did you know?
Homeless shelters in Greenville operate at more than 95% capacity each month.
Source: Greenville Together’s 2025 Impact Report
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Housing surge by the numbers
Housing surge total: 90 households consisting of 154 people moved into permanent housing in 2025
“Shelter-to-Home” approach: 26 households consisting of 65 individuals living in temporary shelters moved into permanent housing in 2025
“Street-to-Home” approach: 64 households consisting of 89 people living on the street moved into permanent housing in 2025
Income breakdown: 46% of participants had no income; 63% made $1,000 or less a month; 5.6% made $2,000 a month.
Source: Greenville Together’s 2025 Impact Report
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Quote
“Greenville Together was really born out of the recognition that doing more of the same would simply not be sufficient. So we are continuing to hold that to the core of everything that we do and really lean into bold, data-driven, innovative solutions and centering the voices of those with lived experience in everything that we do.” – Cody Carver, director of Greenville Together
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Monthly homeless count insights
Greenville Together conducts monthly street counts of the homeless population in the city of Greenville. Cody Carver, director of Greenville Together, shared four key insights from the collected data.
- “The number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness remained relatively steady through most of the year, indicating a consistent level of need rather than short-term spikes.”
- “Emergency shelters in Greenville were operating at or near capacity throughout the year, signaling that the system is largely full even during non-winter months.”
- “As colder weather arrived and additional seasonal shelter options became available, fewer people were observed outdoors — reinforcing that when safe indoor options exist, people use them.”
- “Taken together, the data points to a system constrained by housing availability and shelter capacity, not a lack of engagement or willingness to accept help.”
