History:
In 2024, Ten at the Top partnered with the Upstate Continuum of Care to develop a regional dialogue around the issue of homelessness in the Upstate region. That partnership has led to two Upstate Homelessness & Housing Forums. The first forum was held in October at Southern First Bank Headquarters in Greenville. Local elected officials, government representatives, and business leaders were provided the opportunity to connect with service providers and discuss current challenges as well as future opportunities. Overall, there were 94 attendees representing 61 different organizations and communities across the Upstate.
Following that session, the Upstate Professional Planners+Housing Group hosted a series of workshops in 2025 with the goal of developing recommendations around Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing. Those recommendations were shared during the second Homelessness & Housing Forum held in October 2025 at the Gibbs Cancer Center within Spartanburg Regional Health System’s Pelham location. There were 89 attendees representing 70 organizations and communities across the Upstate.
2025 Focus:
Building on the work of the previous two years, in 2026 the Upstate Professional Planners+Housing Group will be hosting Quarterly Working Sessions that are open to anyone interested in diving deeper into the recommendations developed in 2025. Each session will focus on a specific recommendation by looking at best practices, challenges and opportunities around that topic.
