Emergency Stay-at-Home Order

Columbia Housing to Temporarily Close;

Honors City of Columbia's "Emergency Stay-at-Home Order"

Columbia, SC... In accordance with the City of Columbia's recently enacted emergency Stay-at-Home Order, Columbia Housing will temporarily close.

Effective Monday, March 30, 2020, through Friday, April 17, 2020, all Columbia Housing's employees are directed to work from home. While the agency's offices will officially close temporarily, Columbia Housing will remain available for emergency work orders for its residents. Essential maintenance workers will be on-call during this period.

Since late-January, Columbia Housing's executive leadership team and Board of Commissioners have been meeting regularly to assess the health and safety risk of its residents and staff. The agency is now ready to deploy its virtual-work model using the principles of its new Emergency Preparedness Plan adopted by the Board in November 2019.

"Our essential workers have virtual work capabilities and can stay on task with job responsibilities from remote locations," says Interim Executive Director Ivory Mathews.  "We will operate Columbia Housing in accordance with the advice and orders of public health and public officials as long as necessary. We are asking that our families continue to follow us on our website and social media pages for updates," concludes Mathews.

The City of Columbia's emergency Stay-at-Home Order goes into effect at 12:01 AM on Sunday, March 29, 2020. It requires residents to stay at home and avoid public streets, sidewalks and other public places, as well as businesses unless they are conducting an "essential service."

Columbia Housing currently provides affordable housing to 1,600 families in its Public Housing Program and 4,000 families in its Housing Choice Voucher Program.