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I HAT’S AFFORDABLE? There's Simply Not Much
Housing Available Here For Median Incomes
B arring a last-minute reprieve, as Flagpole
goes to press, residents of Garden Springs
Mobile Home Park have one week to make
way for a new upscale student apartment complex.
Their bid to buy the North Avenue property was
rejected in early October, after the Athens-CU^ke
County Commission voted down a temporary halt
on apartment construction (“Behind The Rail,"
Oct. 10). Regardless of the eventual outcome for
the Garden Springs community, the problem of
finding and keeping affordable housing in Athens
is now front and center.
“It's a complex issue, and it's not one that
necessarily lends itself to quick, simple, options,"
says Rick Parker, executive director of the Athens
Housing Authority (AHA), a quasi-governmental
agency that dispenses federal funds for low-
income housing. "There are a whole series of
policy choices that are going to have to be made."
Parker says the definition of "affordable
housing" depends as much on personal incomes as
on the price of buying or renting the structures
themselves. Under federal standards, for example,
someone earning minimum wage can comfortably
afford just $275 in monthly rent. Since such rates
are virtually non-existent, renters often end up
having to pay more. “This puts their families in
jeopardy should anything in their lives go wrong
at all," says Parker.
One alternative is income-based rental
housing, which the AHA offers. Parker says it then
becomes a matter of finite housing stock, a
problem faced by cities nationwide.
“It doesn't mean communities can't do this,"
he says, “(but) these kinds of issues get enor
mously complex in a hurry."
At an October 9 work session, ACC
Commissioners briefly bandied about their ideas
and concerns.
"We need to define what affordable housing is
before we go running off in 10 different direc
tions," said Commissioner Linda Ford.
Commissioners debated the role of mobile homes
in the affordable housing mix, as compared to
"stick-built" houses. Planning Commission Chair
Herb Gilmore, on hand at the */ork session, noted
that houses normally increase in value, as
opposed to trailers, which tend to lose value. It is
crucial that Athens families have a choice
between the two, Gilmore said.
Ford pointed out that local real estate guides
normally advertise homes in the $50,000 range as
investment properties, rather than as affordable
owner-occupied housing. One reason could be
that those who need less expensive homes have
trouble securing loans, frequently because of bad
credit ratings or difficulty accumulating enough
money to cover up-front costs.
"For many people, it's not the amount of the
monthly payment, it's the down payment," says
Parker.
In addition to providing income-based rentals,
the AHA offers assistance with down payments
and closing costs foi potential homeowners. And
there are a number of loans designed for low-
income buyers, backed by the federal government
and issued through local lenders.
"If I had to say what the biggest problem was,
it's not knowing what's out there," says Stan
Sheram of Athens First Bank & Trust. "There are
several programs through Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac [federal lending agencies] that offer 97 per
cent financing. There are 100 percent loans avail
able for veterans. Most lenders, banks and mort
gage companies can do all of these loans."
Housing and Economic Leadership Partners
(HELP) works with lenders, including Athens First,
to finance affordable housing With a focus on
home ownership, HELP, a private non-profit group,
also builds and rehabilitates houses, provides
housing counseling and access to down payment
assistance.
Executive Director Roseann Davis says when
HELP got its start 10 years ago, it considered
$45,000 to $50,000 homes as affordable. "Now
we're looking ai houses that are about $70,000,"
she says, "and we're seeing the same trend: at any
given time you could probably find 10 houses
available under $70,000."
Of those 10 houses, says Davis, half are nor
mally beyond repair, and three to four more are
tenant-occupied.
“It doesn't do any good to displace the ten
ants in order to put a homeowner in there," she
says. "You still only have that many houses. We
have a great need for housing that sells below
$100,000."
By federal standards, anyone earning $28,000
a year or less in Athens is considered low-income.
HELP'S 874 clients bring in an average of just over
$16,000 annually.
"If they've got a car payment to go with that
house payment," says Davis, “that's going to wipe
them out. If you check the prices on the apart
ments, they're almost totally unaffordable to
someone making less than median income."
“What we really need to do," she continues,
“is sit down with housing professionals and come
up with a future housing plan."
As part of his proposed moratorium on apart
ment construction, Commissioner John Barrow
called for a comprehensive independent study of
Athens' housing stock. ACC Manager Alan Reddish
has opted instead for a staff survey of available
units deemed affordable by federal Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) guidelines. That survey
will be led by the ACC Human and Economic
Development Department (HED). A conduit for
HUD funds, HED helps finance emergency repairs
and offers housing counseling.
“Although it's going to be limited, hopefully
we'll be able to get some kind of idea, some kind
of direction, from this survey," says HED Director
Keith McNeely.
As for a possible course of action should the
survey detect an affordable housing shortage,
McNeely says. "We haven't gotten that far yet."
At the Commission's October 9 work session,
Barrow said the county should at least go to work
now to hold on to what it has.
"Our first rule ought to be 'Do no harm,'" he
said. "Where you've got it. change the rules so
that it's very difficult to displace it."
During the moratorium debate, many from the
development community said the county should
look to the private sector for help. Athens-Clarke
County can't afford to pay developers to build
houses and sell them at a loss, Barrow said, but it
can provide incentives through "inclusionary
zoning"—downzoning areas of high profit, low
risk potential, then increasing zoning allowances
for builders who include some low-income units in
their developments.
It appears the Commission is adopting a "do
no harm" approach on Baxter Street. When the
new zoning ordinance passed last December, hun
dreds of parcels in the single-family Rocksprings-
area neighborhood were rezoned RM-2—the same
multi-family designation that led to the Garden
Springs evictions. Indications are Commissioners
will revert 404 parcels to single-family zoning,
responding to residents' fears of new, high-density
development destroying their neighborhood.
Though the Rocksprings rezoning will basically
serve to undo more damage done by the new
zoning ordinance, it could be a start to addressing
an issue Athens-Clarke County may no longer be
able to ignore.
"I think you think about things as thought
fully as you can, but you have to try stuff and see
what works," says Rick Parker. "I hope that's
where we're embarking on."
Brad Aaron
A new McKinley Drive home, built by the Athens Housing Authority.
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6 FLAGPOLE COM • OCTOBER 24. 2001