Anyone who rents or has tried to buy a home recently knows that housing is becoming completely unaffordable in Athens. The real question is – what can we do about it?
The local government wants to find out, and they’re asking for public input about how they can help to stabilize rents and promote home ownership for the long-term. You can help shape our community’s affordable housing investment strategy by providing input here.
The ACC government is accepting online responses through May 31. But if you’d rather give your input in person, they’re holding an affordable housing listening session on May 9 from 10-11:30am at the Athens Community Council on Aging (135 Hoyt Street). They also held a session at the ACC library last week.
The local government has asked the consulting firm HR&A Advisors to take a look at the problem of housing affordability in Athens and the tools that we could be using to help solve it. Below, we’ll check out what they’ve come up with so far.
Table of Contents
Athens’ housing problem
Solutions and funding sources
What we’re already doing: The American Rescue Plan
Next steps towards housing affordability
Athens’ housing problem
Housing affordability is defined by comparing the cost of housing to a person’s income. So, if someone pays 30% of their income towards housing costs or less, they are said to have an affordable place to live.
Unfortunately, many renters in Athens are paying much more than that right now.
While Athens’ workers have always been paid low wages, we’ve been fortunate in the past to have had an abundance of apartments and homes available at extremely low rents. That’s changed in the past five or ten years. Today, the median rent in Athens is $1,214 a month but the median renter is only able to easily afford $733 a month, according to data analyzed by the ACC government.
Making matters worse, home ownership isn’t a viable option for most of these renters. The median home price in Athens has ballooned out to $287,000 in recent years, a price level which would have been inconceivable a decade ago. Local renters on average can only afford to buy a home costing at most $200,000, if they could find one at that price.
The gap between slowly growing wages and skyrocketing housing costs in Athens is likely to continue widening without government intervention. So what can we do about it?
Solutions and funding sources
The first and most obvious solution to the housing crisis is for the government to approve more housing construction and also to help fund it if possible. Fortunately, this is happening already in Athens. The upcoming redevelopments of north downtown and the Georgia Square Mall are two notable examples, but there are several smaller developments approved recently that will also contain some affordable units.
In addition to local funding sources like SPLOST and tax allocation districts, which are helping fund the north downtown project and the mall redevelopment, another pot of money we can put to work is Athens’ share of the American Rescue Plan. The local government allocated $11 million of American Rescue Plan funding towards affordable housing back in March of last year, and has since adjusted that figure to $15 million.
How affordable housing funds from the American Rescue Plan are being spent
- “Phase I” Affordable Housing Projects ($6.1 million)
The $6.1 million includes $4.25 million for new construction of owner-occupied units, $800 thousand for new rental units and $1.1 million for repair and weatherization assistance.
- North Downtown Redevelopment ($7.5 million)
This funding supplements the $39 million already on the way from SPLOST 2020. Additional funding was necessary because of inflation in the cost of building materials and other aspects of construction since approval of the SPLOST budget.
- Affordable Housing Preservation Fund ($1.25 million)
The Athens Justice and Memory project requested this bucket of funds to help preserve affordable housing in Athens as a form of reparations to Black residents displaced during urban renewal.
- Creation of an Affordable Housing Investment Strategy ($160 thousand)
The local government contracted HR&A Advisors to develop an affordable housing strategy, which is currently underway.
This information comes from the local government’s American Rescue Plan transparency website.
Next steps towards housing affordability
Unfortunately, Athens residents will still suffer from a lack of affordable housing even after the above funds are expended. That’s why a long-term affordable housing investment plan is needed. In fact, HR&A Advisors have already identified several tools Athens could be using to build more subsidized housing, stabilize rents and support homeownership. Let’s take a look at the options:
Create a local housing fund
ACC could create a revolving loan fund to provide developers of affordable housing with low-interest loans. As the projects are completed, the loans would be paid back and the money could be used to help fund another project.
Sell public land to developers of affordable housing
The local government is planning to consolidate government operations in the current courthouse after the construction of a new judicial center is complete. This would potentially allow the sale of public land, which would no longer be needed for government work, to developers for the creation of guaranteed affordable housing. There’s also a plan in the works to move the Athens Transit facility on Pound Street to another location, so that Pound Street property would be another potential site that could be sold to help create new affordable housing.
Provide down-payment assistance to homebuyers
The ACC government could make funding available for low-income renters to help them become homeowners by defraying the cost of down payments. The funding could come in the form of grants or as revolving low-interest loans.
Create a local mortgage pool
Another way to help encourage home ownership would be to work with local banks and other financial institutions so that they could provide more favorable terms to first-time homebuyers seeking a mortgage.
Continue repair and weatherization assistance
Low-income homeowners often lack the resources to adequately maintain their homes, which in a worst case scenario might lead to a formerly affordable home being condemned. The local government could help preserve our existing stock of affordable housing by continuing to provide home repair and weatherization assistance after the funding in the American Rescue Plan has been exhausted.
The local government probably doesn’t have the funding to pursue all of these strategies, so they are asking for your advice on how to prioritize them. You can provide input here.
A draft of the affordable housing investment strategy should be available in July. The mayor and commission will vote on the plan this fall.
If you’re interested in this topic, the UGA Geography Department and the Athens Housing Advocacy Team are hosting a community event this Friday, May 5, from 12-3pm at the ACC Library. According to their press release, UGA Geography students will present mapping projects related to housing and evictions in Athens. They’ll share information about Athens’ top evictors, map the areas with the highest evictions, and describe the impact of the local eviction prevention program.
There will also be a “Know Your Rights” workshop facilitated by a local tenant’s rights lawyer. Lunch will be provided for free to the first 50 attendees!
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