Hilton Head businessman wanted affordable rent for employees. He spent $3M to make it happen

Businessman Kevin Carter isn’t waiting for the Town of Hilton Head to address the issue of workforce housing.

Instead, he’s tackling it on his own with a nearly $3 million investment in island properties that he buys, renovates and makes available for his employees to rent.

Carter is owner of Hilton Head Health, a weight loss and wellness resort that has been lauded as one of the best in the nation.

“I don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Well, my kitchen’s not going to be open on Monday,’” Carter said. “We’re a 24/7 resort that has to have fully functioning everything around the clock.”

Even before COVID intensified Beaufort County’s housing shortage, Carter saw that affordable housing was going to keep Hilton Head Health — or H3, as it’s sometimes known — from recruiting and keeping the best employees.

“With the growth of Bluffton, people don’t have to drive all the way onto the island to get the same money or the same opportunity, so that’s part of it,” he said.

Also, rising property values have given landlords an opportunity to sell or to increase rent dramatically.

Hilton Head Health now owns 19 residences, including studio apartments, condos and even a single-family house. Utilities are included in the monthly price of about $600 a month per bedroom.

“We’re a team,” Carter explained. “If you’re worried about losing your house, or you’re worried about all these other things in your life, it’s hard to come to work and focus on giving our guests the best experience that they can. And so for me ... I want to take that burden off of the employees as best I can.”

Carter estimated that around 35% of Hilton Head Health employees rent from the company.

Matt Barrack, a fitness trainer, is one of them.

He moved from Greenville six years ago to work for Hilton Head Health but only moved into an apartment owned by his employer at Cotton Hope Villas earlier this year.

“The place I was in, the rent just got too expensive,” Barrack said. “I couldn’t justify it. I really tried to find a place on my own first, but everything was more expensive than the place I was living.”

He said he probably would not have continued working at Hilton Head Health without its housing program.

“I had considered, if I can’t find a place, I might have to leave the area,” Barrack said.

Rachel Sharp is a massage therapist who relocated from the Detroit area to work at H3 last year.

“They immediately offered me a place to live because they knew how hard it was going to be to find a place,” she said.

Sharp said not having to look for a rental helped her start her job more quickly, so all she had to do was pack her things and move.

In her two-bedroom condo at Forest Cove, each roommate has her own bedroom and bathroom suite on either side of a shared living room and kitchen.

“It’s a great setup,” Sharp said.

Dillie MeHaffey is a laundry attendant who has lived in an H3-owned one-bedroom apartment in The Gatherings for about six months. She said she would not have been able to move from Oak Island, North Carolina, without the offer of an available apartment.

“The good thing about the job is that it does make living in this area affordable,” she said.

All three employees expressed some degree of hesitancy about being dependent on their employer for their housing.

“I know that if I stopped working here, I would not be able to afford to live here or I would have to have to have roommates,” MeHaffey said.

Still, the benefits, at least in the short term, outweigh the risk, they said.

“It’s amazingly convenient,” Sharp said. “I am very aware of how lucky I am.”

The Town of Hilton Head, citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Zillow, says the median home price on the island is $420,000 and the median rent is $1,500 per month.

The town is evaluating bids for a new affordable housing development on 12 acres just off William Hilton Parkway near Marsh Point Drive. Details like the type and number of units have not been finalized, but construction could start as early as next year.

In late August, 300 mostly Spanish-speaking tenants were given eviction notices at Chimney Cove Village, a low-income apartment complex on Hilton Head. Nearly all of the families who live there work on the island, officials said. The evictions have been temporarily rescinded.