In recent weeks I’ve been taking a look at Georgia’s lack of affordable housing. The problem, articulated by Governor Kemp and the state’s Economist Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman, is that Georgia does not have enough housing units for the workforce we currently have, much less for the employees we expect to add with economic development wins. This has become especially acute in rural Georgia, where much of our recent business recruiting activity has been focused.
Though we lack quality rental options for workforce housing throughout the state – housing that is often the first step in household formation or introduction to a new area – I’ve chosen specifically to focus on owner occupied housing for working Georgians. These are homes that would be attainable for teachers, police, nurses, and would also fall in the range that those who work in the newest and biggest manufacturing facilities would be able to afford.
This brings us to the conflict that is handled on the local level, community by community. An influx of new residents brings change. Each community has a different perspective on how they wish to grow, or even if they want to grow.
New residents bring new ideas with them, and often question why things that “have always been done this way” are still being done this way. Those invested in and prospering from the status quo often don’t like having to answer these questions, even if the local economic pie is growing.
In fact, many local governments at the city and county level are erecting barriers to housing expansion. They generally do so under the guise of “protecting our property values”. That’s getting pretty close to saying the quiet part out loud, in that they want to keep prices high.
High prices, to too many, means self-selecting the “right” neighbors. It also means keeping too many working people out. The term for these practices is called “exclusionary zoning”.
There’s quite a few levers…
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