How Does the Housing Initiative Work?

Claire Bolton and Broderick Flanigan, who head up the Housing Initiative, have focused first and foremost on base-building. What does that mean?

1. Inviting leadership from individuals who work or live in Athens neighborhoods most impacted by housing discrimination.
2. Working closely with existing/emerging housing-related groups in communities of color, including material ($) or logistical support.
3. Building vocal support for pro-black housing policy in Athens (for example, public statements, showing up to City Hall).
4. Building a crucial knowledge base for informing policy ideas, based on the idea that the knowledge we need to make good policy comes not only from abstract research, but from community spaces in which many people are impacted by housing discrimination and related issues.

Attacking the problem this way builds support for good ideas that actually help the people who need affordable housing, rather than taking a top-down approach that may create unfeasible solutions. Some examples include starting neighborhood associations in historically underserved areas, building relationships with real estate professionals who are dedicated to racial justice and affordable housing, as well as regular meetings with affected groups. Affordable housing is a large, complex and difficult issue to solve, but we can do it if we work together.

Base-building makes up about three quarters of the initiative’s time. The other 25 percent goes to policy. For example:

1. Doing the more abstract research on things like the implications/implementation of the policy ideas currently on our platform, the current state of housing and community development policy in Athens and historic racial disparities around housing in Athens.
2. Working with A4E’s Policy & Elections Committee to shape elected officials’ policy agendas.
3. Keeping on top of policy developments through attending public meetings and other monitoring activities

Housing is first and foremost a racial justice issue. A history of anti-Black segregation and dispossession fosters inequity that can be seen in Athens’ schools, job market, health care system and other vital institutions. These issues have affected nearly every city in the United States, and we can make changes here that influence the rest of the country. The Housing Initiative’s identified priorities are: housing affordability, anti-discrimination efforts and the “right to stay put” in gentrifying neighborhoods.

Preserving, Rehabilitating and Building Affordable Housing

A crucial part of keeping cities affordable is building more affordable housing. Doing so is expensive and must be subsidized, but federal (HUD) subsidies are low. We need to identify funding and policy mechanisms that can increase the supply of affordable housing in Athens.

We should be advocating for:

• Securing additional, annual, permanent funding from Athens-Clarke County’s General Fund for the Housing Production Trust Fund. Like most US cities, Athens receives insufficient federal funding from HUD for housing and community development. We need to work with local government to identify permanent funding streams for the existing housing trust fund.
• Carefully implemented infill development in multifamily (typically minority) neighborhoods. Infill development ordinances allow for developing vacant or under-used land in built-up areas. We could work toward implementing a program like Miami-Dade County’s Infill Housing Program in which “Every dwelling unit developed through the Infill Housing Program must be sold to a very-low, low- or moderate-income household to be used as their primary residence.”

Gentrification

Gentrification is a race issue. As historically Black in-town neighborhoods become unaffordable, low-income residents are pushed out to Athens’ periphery and beyond. Gentrification is not integration if residents of color cannot stay in their homes. We must intervene with policy to make in-town Athens affordable and help people stay in their homes.

We should be advocating for:

• Affordable housing overlay districts with specific policy, zoning and design guidelines oriented to affordable housing in neighborhoods at risk of gentrification (such as West Hancock and East Athens). This includes requiring and/or incentivizing inclusionary zoning for rental and condominium development.
• Property tax abatement for seniors in neighborhoods at risk of gentrification.
• Re-zoning for racial justice: minority neighborhoods such as West Hancock, East Athens and the Hawthorne corridor should have similar zoning to the majority-white Prince Ave. corridor. Downzoning gives local government a bargaining chip to use for any new development plans.
• Having the local government buy parcels of land in neighborhoods vulnerable to gentrification (such as those surrounding the Greenway and Firefly Trail) and designate them for affordable housing and other forms of accessible development.

Housing Stability and Tenants’ Rights

All Athenians deserve stable housing. Displacement pressures are rising for public housing and Section 8 tenants in in-town neighborhoods, many of whom are Black and Hispanic. These tenants must be able to stay in their homes. Athenians must do everything we can to protect and maintain in-town public and Section 8 housing.

We should oppose:

• Displacement of any residents if mixed-income redevelopment of Rocksprings, Broadacres, Parkview, Bethel Homes or any other public or private low-income housing complex in Athens occurs. In the case of mixed-income redevelopment, the bare minimum package for displaced residents must include: more than 1-for-1 replacement of subsidized or low-income units; guaranteed right of return for every resident; full funding of all moving expenses and minimal disruption of neighborhood life by redeveloping fewer than 10 units at a time in garden-style complexes.

We should also be supporting neighborhood organization efforts in historically marginalized neighborhoods, including homeowner, homebuyer and tenant educational programming.

Other Key Issues

• Fostering a culture of affordable housing among the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission. Every proposed new development should raise the question of what can this developer do to a) increase the stock of affordable housing and b) avoid displacement of low-income Athenians.
• Repealing the single family ordinance.
• Investigating housing value discrimination in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
• Comprehensive re-zoning for racial justice, where it applies outside of the cases discussed above.
• Advocating for permanent housing for Athens’ homeless population, including those living in tent cities.
• Providing a mechanism or incentive for a progressive property tax on residential property.

This isn’t a fight that’s going to be won overnight, but we believe we can win it, especially with your help. The A4E Housing Initiative meets monthly, and we post Facebook events for those meetings, which are usually in the early evening on weekdays. To get involved, email  housing@athensforeveryone.com.

Here they go again.

The Mayor and Commission are considering rezoning a property on Mitchell Street, which is situated between downtown and the university. The proposed development is a 100-plus-foot tower, much like other recent high-rise residential developments downtown, only taller. This is a massive increase in scale over what would be allowed under the current zoning, making it a big ask on the part of the developers that would would result in tens of millions in additional revenue for them if the Mayor and Commission approve the project.

Who Benefits?

What does Athens get in return if this proposal passes? 258 bedrooms of game-day condos. Yes, second or third or fourth homes for well-heeled UGA football fans. As reported in a Flagpole article published June 2, the developer acknowledged this fact during a Planning Commission meeting, saying, “We’re looking at people who already have a mountain house, already have a beach house, already have an Atlanta house, but want to come to Athens.”

Several commissioners have spoken favorably about the development, arguing that it would be housing density where we need it most, that it would serve a different demographic than students downtown, that it would reduce our dependence on cars. None of this is true.

This development has more parking spaces than bedrooms and a drive-through auto court to boot. Everyone who stays there will drive. People who come to Athens for seven weekends a year are not residents, and the condo tower where they stay would not be housing; it would be a private hotel. So if approved and built it would do nothing to add to Athens housing stock for any income level and would displace actual housing that could be built on that site. And this proposed development is certainly not intended for a different demographic than other recent developments. Nearly everything that has been built in Athens recently is for the same demographic; whether expensive single family infill, luxury student apartments, or, now, luxury football vacation homes, it is all being built for the wealthy.

“We’re looking at people who already have a mountain house, already have a beach house, already have an Atlanta house, but want to come to Athens.” -Mitchell Street Developer

We need better balance. It’s what our community has asked for repeatedly. While actual Athenians struggle to find housing they can afford, it seems painfully out of touch for the Mayor and Commission to seriously consider approving this development.

Please contact the Mayor and Commission (agenda item 15) and tell them to vote NO on the Mitchell Street rezone. Come to City Hall on September 5th at 6:00pm and tell them that we want Affordable Housing for All, not more options for those who already have the most.

Better Ideas for Housing In Athens

Here’s a preliminary list of policy changes that ACC could implement to move us in the right direction, by increasing the availability of affordable housing, unlike the proposed development.

1. Fund Our Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

$250,000 to $500,000 of annual funding would quickly make this an effective financial tool able to leverage millions of dollars of investment in affordable housing.

2. Institute an Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance.

Inclusionary zoning, where new developments are required or encouraged to include affordable units, would harness our robust student housing development market to assist the funding of affordable housing.

3. Bring Unused Properties Back into Use Through Partnership with Our Not-For-Profit Affordable Housing Providers.

Empty houses represent both a drain on the surrounding neighborhood and  an opportunity to seamlessly add more housing where it is needed most. Moving these houses back into use through affordable housing providers would ensure their affordability.

4. Reduce the Minimum Lot Size in Single Family Zones.

Allowing lots as small as 2500 square feet, coupled with house size limits, provides an alternative to building large and expensive single family houses as infill, currently the only viable option within our single family zones.

5. Institute Preferential House Size Thresholds within Our New Infill Housing Ordinance.

Our new infill housing ordinance disadvantages small lots, making it prohibitively difficult to build on our smallest lots in our densest neighborhoods, where lower priced single family homes are more likely. Adding language to suspend the new setback restrictions for houses under a certain size would encourage the construction of smaller houses on these smaller lots.

6. Allow Accessory Dwelling Units in Single Family Zones.

Accessory dwellings, whether included in the primary structure or separate, are a low-impact, easily-managed way to bring mixed-income housing into all of Athens’ neighborhoods. Quality of life concerns are mitigated by a requirement that one of the units be owner-occupied, verifiable through our homestead exemption.

7. Establish a Property Tax Abatement Program for Low-Income Homeowners.

Development in many neighborhoods is a cause for concern because of the effect that it has on the property tax assessments of existing residents. Rising property values and subsequent higher property taxes are a real hardship for our low-income residents. The answer to these concerns is not to restrict additional housing, which would exacerbate rising property values, but to alleviate the tax burden on those who are most harmed by the increases.

Athens for Everyone
8/30/17