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Affordable Housing Gets Less Affordable
PRICE GOES UP AGAIN FOR NORTH DOWNTOWN PROJECT, AND MORE NEWS
By Blake Aued news@flagpole.com
Athens-Clarke County commissioners voted
to spend another $4 million on an already
over-budget affordable housing project and
wind down a program to prevent evictions
during a Nov. 15 called meeting.
The county had initially given the Athens
Housing Authority $4 million in federal
funds as a bridge loan for the Bethel Mid
town Village redevelopment—known as
the North Downtown Project—until the
Georgia Department of Community Affairs
came through with a $4 million grant to off
set increased construction costs as a result
of inflation and shortages of materials.
But now the AHA/ACC/Columbia Residen
tial public-private partnership will keep
that money, in addition to the DCA grant,
because construction costs have risen even
further, along with interest rates.
With $39 million in county sales tax
revenue already committed and $22 million
in DCA tax credits on the line, the project
has to keep moving forward in spite of spi
raling costs, AHA Executive Director Rick
Parker said. “I think this is well beyond the
comfort zone of both parties,” he said. “The
reason to continue down this path is not
to lose the affordable housing tax credits,
which expire at the end of this year.”
In between May, when the partnership
applied for more DCA funds, and October,
when the $4 million grant was awarded,
interest rates rose by two percentage
points, Parker said. He said he and Mayor
Kelly Girtz both sought additional funding
from DCA on top of the latest $4 million,
but DCA declined.
The $4 million expenditure drained the
last of the $11 million the ACC Commission
set aside for affordable housing from its
$60 million share of the American Rescue
Plan Act’s federal funding for state and local
governments’ pandemic recovery. Commis
sioner Jesse Houle raised the question, if
cost overruns keep happening, where will
the money to cover them come from? “I have
a fear within me about how we get through
phases 2, 3, 4 and 5 when we have no more
money on our end to put into it,” Houle said.
The North Downtown Project is cur
rently in phase 1, which involves tearing
down part of the existing Bethel, install
ing infrastructure and building one new
building. When complete, the development
will replace 190 aging Section 8 units with
715-875 new ones—one-third public hous
ing, one-third subsidized and one-third
market rate.
“This is an extraordinary set of circum
stances,” Parker said. “We’ll solve that
problem as we go. We’ll do that in a variety
of ways.”
The AHA locked in an interest rate that
saved $2.5 million, Parker said, but it expires
Jan. 5. In addition, the team in charge of
the project pre-bought materials to lock in
prices, is looking at design changes and is
negotiating with contractors on cost-cutting
incentives. He also said he expects the fed
eral government to step in and provide relief
for similarly struggling projects nationwide,
based on his past experience in the wake of
the 2007 housing crisis.
“I believe we’re not just simply going to
stop building affordable housing in America
because of the economics and the inflation
going on,” Parker said. “I believe this will
be addressed by a combination of: inflation
will eventually moderate, interest rates will
stabilize, and additional resources will be
provided.”
The commission also voted to wind
down an eviction prevention program run
by a new and inexperienced nonprofit,
First Athenian Development Corp., after a
county report detailed numerous account
ing irregularities dating back to June that
led ACC Manager Blaine Williams to sus
pend the program last month.
At least 19 households had been
approved for help when the program was
suspended, and there may be up to 50 more
in the pipeline, Williams said. The ACC
Housing and Community Development
Department will assist those applicants,
and then it will end, unless the commission
opts to reopen bidding to run it. “We can’t
take over the program,” Williams said. “We
don’t have the capacity.”
In less than a year, the program pre
vented about 300 evictions by using $1
million of the $2.5 million in ARPA funds
the commission allocated for that purpose.
However, as the end of the federal eviction
moratorium last November grows further
away, it becomes harder to pin evictions
on COVID-19, according to Williams. Both
DCA and Gwinnett County—whose Project
RESET provided the model for Athens’
program—stopped accepting applications
for eviction prevention assistance in late
October.
However, housing assistance is available
from local nonprofits Advantage Behavioral
Health Systems, Family Promise, Project
Safe, Acceptance Community Center and
The Ark that split $800,000 the commis
sion recently awarded for rehousing from
another federal source, Community Devel
opment Block Grants.
Souls to the Polls
Early voting for the runoff between Sen.
Raphael Warnock and Republican chal
lenger Herschel Walker starts Sunday, Nov.
27 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the ACC Elec
tions Office downtown.
On Nov. 28, early voting will expand
to include four additional locations: the
Miriam Moore Community Center (410
McKinley Drive), the ACC Cooperative
Extension Office (275 Cleveland Road), the
ACC Tennis Center (4460 Lexington Road)
and the Athens Regional Library (2025
Baxter St.). The library was added at a called
Board of Elections meeting Nov. 17 after
a miscommunication about the library’s
availability. Hours at those four sites are
9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday
and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday. The elections
office (155 E. Washington St.) is open from
7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday
and 7 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday. Dec. 2 is the
last day to vote early before Election Day on
Tuesday, Dec. 6.
As of press time, it’s unknown whether
there will be early voting on Saturday, Nov.
26 because the Georgia secretary of state’s
office interprets the law to bar Saturday
voting after a holiday—in this case, Thanks
giving and an unnamed state holiday that
formerly commemorated Confederate gen
eral Robert E. Lee.
Anyone who is registered to vote can
vote in the runoff, regardless of whether
they voted in the Nov. 8 general election.
That election ended with Warnock receiv
ing 49.4% of the vote, just shy of the 50%
plus one needed to win outright. Walker
received 48.5%, and Libertarian Chase
Oliver, who was eliminated, received 2.1%.
Walker Will Sink or Swim
on Trans Athletes
Walker touched on a number of issues—
taxes, energy, crime, immigration—but if
his speech in Jefferson is any indication,
the one his campaign has settled on to try
to get him over the finish line in the Senate
runoff is transgender athletes.
Walker’s campaign stop at a Jackson
County agriculture warehouse on Nov. 15
featured Riley Gaines, a champion Univer
sity of Kentucky swimmer who’s been an
outspoken critic of transgender women in
women’s sports after competing against Lia
Thomas, who transitioned during college at
the University of Pennsylvania.
“That’s like having Herschel Walker com
pete against your daughter,” said Walker, a
Heisman Trophy-winning former NFL run
ning back. “You don’t want me to compete
against your daughter, do you?”
Women’s sports will be destroyed if
biological men are allowed to compete, said
Gaines, who’s been a frequent guest on
right-wing media and cut ads for conserva
tives like North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem
and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. “There are
only two sexes, and you cannot change your
sex,” she said.
As senator, “I will get men out of wom
en’s sports,” Walker pledged. It was an issue
he came back to again and again during his
stump speech.
“I’ll tell you the definition of a man and
a woman, because it’s in the Bible,” he said
at another point. “A man and a woman are
two different people.” And a man can’t get
pregnant, he added.
Walker then went on to attack a mili
tary leadership he said had become “weak”
and obsessed with pronouns. “Pronouns?
What’s a pronoun? I can tell you, a grenade
don’t care about their pronouns.”
Asked for comment, Cameron Harrelson,
a political activist and immediate past pres
ident of the Athens PRIDE + Queer Collec
tive, condemned Walker’s statements.
“Herschel Walker’s Bible is not the law of
the land—period,” Harrelson said. “This is
clearly a desperate attempt by the far right
to mobilize their most extreme base around
issues that are complex and often misrepre
sented by conservatives and the media.
“The last time I checked, Herschel Walker
does not identify as trans, therefore his
comparison and comments are irrelevant.
This rhetoric by Walker is dangerous and
only seeks to further marginalize a group
of people who continually experience dis
crimination, hate and extreme violence.
Trans youth and individuals belong every
where, from sports to leadership—end of
discussion.”
Meanwhile, Warnock used the Nov. 17
anniversary of the bipartisan infrastructure
act to remind Athens voters of the $25
million Athens-Clarke County received to
improve North Avenue.
The U.S. Department of Transportation
grant, awarded in August, will pay to repave
North Avenue between Willow Street and
Freeman Drive/Collins Industrial Boule
vard, upgrade bus stops and crosswalks,
and build a multi-use path for cyclists and
pedestrians alongside the road, including a
pedestrian bridge over the Loop.
“I am glad to see the Athens area will
benefit from the provisions I secured in
this law,” Warnock said in a Thursday news
release. “These funds will upgrade North
Avenue and make it safer for commuters
and pedestrians.”
President Joe Biden signed the infra
structure bill into law on Nov. 15, 2021.
Walker is opposed to it because it included
$100 million to plant trees in low-income
neighborhoods. ©
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