Fewer than half of the homes in York County's impoverished Blackmon Road neighborhood have working bathrooms.
Almost a third of the neighborhood's 32 occupied residences are dilapidated and need to be torn down.
With no public water or sewer access and only one public well, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control has, in past reviews, listed the community as "environmentally distressed."
These were just a few of the findings of an 18-month study of Blackmon Road by the Catawba Regional Council of Governments. The York County Council heard the study results during a meeting Monday night in York.
The community has a myriad of problems, said Grazier Rhea of the Council of Governments, who has been working on the study.
For decades, Blackmon Road has been a magnet for York County's poor. The community lies at the end of a dirt road off S.C. 72, near downtown Rock Hill. Many residents live in crumbling shacks or old school buses with no indoor plumbing or electricity. A number of individuals, churches and agencies have tried to help the neighborhood - including "A Place for Hope," a community center that recently opened there.
With the help of a two-year $20,000 state grant, the Council of Governments has been studying the community's housing, infrastructure, service and health needs. Among the study's findings so far:
About 100 people live in the neighborhood, although the numbers change daily, Rhea said.
Of the neighborhood's 32 occupied homes - which include 12 houses, 15 mobile homes, three campers and two buses - 21 are deteriorated and 11 are dilapidated.
About 42 percent of the homes have no bathrooms. Some of the homes with bathroom facilities don't have septic tanks, meaning waste leaves the home as raw sewage. Three public, portable toilets were installed on the property by a local church, Rhea noted.
About 70 percent of residents heat their homes with wood or kerosene. Some have no heat.
While some people have electricity, many don't use it because they can't afford to pay the bills.
It would cost about $800,000 to extend water and sewer lines into the community, but residents likely couldn't afford to pay the water and sewer fees, Rhea said.
The Council of Governments, with the help of other local groups, will continue to look for solutions to these problems, Rhea said. "We will not give up."
Contact Caroline Brustad at 329-4082 or cbrustad@heraldonline.com.
For decades, Blackmon Road has been a magnet for York County's poor. The community lies at the end of a dirt road off S.C. 72, near downtown Rock Hill. Many residents live in crumbling shacks or old school buses with no indoor plumbing or electricity. A number of individuals, churches and agencies have tried to help the neighborhood - including "A Place for Hope," a community center that recently opened there.
About 42 percent of the homes have no bathrooms. Some of the homes with bathroom facilities don't have septic tanks, meaning waste leaves the home as raw sewage. Three public, portable toilets were installed on the property by a local church, [Grazier Rhea] noted.