Susan McLarty is the first Coordinator of the Greenville Homeless Alliance and has held this position since May 1, 2018.  Prior to this she served on the 2016 Affordable Housing Steering Committee for the City of Greenville, Greenville Homeless Alliance Steering Committee as Chair of Advocacy, United Ministries Executive Board as Chair of Congregational Relations and Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network (GAIHN) Board.  She is a graduate of Diversity Leaders Initiative (DLI) with The Riley Institute at Furman University and an Elder with Presbyterian Church (USA.)  She is currently serving on the Student Improvement Council (SIC) at Wade Hampton High School and as Vice Chair of The Greenville Housing Authority Board.  Susan is married to George and they have a daughter. In 2003, she accepted a call to ministry at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Mission Outreach and Congregational Care where she was instrumental in developing new missions and programs to engage 1800 adults and 800 children within and outside the church.  She has been active in the community since moving to South Carolina to work for Milliken & Co. as an Automotive Textile Designer in 1992.  A graduate of North Carolina State University, she primarily grew up in Kingsport, TN. 

The Greenville Homeless Alliance (GHA) is a public/private partnership committed to making homelessness brief and rare in Greenville, SC.  GHA’s mission is to strengthen partnerships and broaden support in order to ensure safe, affordable homes for all. Charged with looking for system-wide solutions to homelessness, GHA works to educate, advocate, collaborate, and innovate with policymakers and the community. 

• EDUCATE – We strive to recognize and dismantle biases and discrimination in ourselves, our organizations, and our community.
• ADVOCATE – In addition to being without a home, individuals experiencing homelessness often find themselves without a voice as well. 
• COLLABORATE – GHA places great emphasis on bringing partners together to improve, enhance, and create solutions that make homelessness brief and rare in Greenville. 
• INNOVATE – At its core, GHA is charged with providing innovative leadership as we look for community-wide, systemic solutions for reducing homelessness in Greenville. 

Background

Homelessness, in Greenville, South Carolina as in many places, is an ongoing and complex issue. Housing insecurity and homelessness can result from economic issues like unemployment, lack of affordable housing, or insufficient income from low-wage jobs; in many cases, mental health problems or substance abuse play a role, especially with the chronically homeless. 

In 2015, 18 partner organizations loosely formed a coalition called the Homelessness Leadership Task Force.  This group helped determine the most critical priorities outlined in the Homelessness White Paper. Since then, nonprofit organizations, businesses, local government and philanthropies have been working toward more long-term coordinated strategies to address those priorities. In May of 2018, GHA was officially formed using the collective impact framework and has been joined by more than 75 organizations and 900 individuals working and advocating for the shared vision of safe, affordable homes for all.

GHA uses the five key elements of the collective impact framework as a basis for partnership: a common agenda, common progress measures, coordination of mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and support of the partnership through United Ministries as the host organization.  GHA Values are Equity, Integrity, Inclusiveness, Pragmatism, and Courage.