The Gray/Jones County GICH committee had a presentation from the Director of the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing at its April meeting.
The April 18 meeting was called to order by Chairman Donald Black and was joined via Zoom by Jermaine Durham, Ph.D, who, in addition being the GICH director, is an assistant professor of Housing and Community Development for the University of Georgia.
Durham started with a brief history of GICH that started in 2004 as a pilot program of the National League of Cities with the goal of building the capacity of local leadership.
Gray/Jones County received the GICH designation in November of 2009.
Durham said GICH began before the great recession that caused the biggest crisis in the country’s history. He said tackling the housing crisis required an innovated approach.
“Housing issues are tricky, rooted in other problems,” he said.
The director said the initiative was able to help with resources and finding opportunities. He said each GICH community partnered with a facilitator for its initial three-year period.
“The mission was to help communities address local housing issues. Through GICH, technical assistance, training and tools can be provided,” he said.
Durham said he is currently working with Baldwin County, which is a freshman GICH community. He said consensus building is one of the big takeaways.
“They learn about available programs and learn from other communities,” he said.
Durham said the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the Georgia Municipal Association and the USDA all help to provide basic services.
“These partnerships are the reason for success,” he said.
The director said communities first develop an action plan to address housing problems and then identify funding.
Black said Jones County had recently updated its action plan.
Durham said he would like to provide more alumni content at the retreats and get the alumni contributors more involved. He said the alumni advisory committee meets several times a year.
“Alumni groups are now the largest part of the GICH community, and we want to focus more attention on them. We are working with UGA extension to provide more facilitators.
GICH member Joy Carr asked how other communities are utilizing GICH.
Durham said they are addressing two issues. The first is affordability of new housing. He said communities are in dire need of affordable housing. The director said another need is the rehabilitation of existing housing, which can be done using CDBG and CHIP grants.
Durham said blight is another issue being addressed by GICH communities. He said blight affects rural communities disproportionately. The director said grants are also available to address blight.
“The pandemic has caused more housing issues, and the increased rains we are seeing are causing problems with old sewer systems. CDBG and assist with that,” he said.
Durham said maintaining housing teams has been one of the biggest challenges for alumni groups and he encouraged Jones County to attend the retreats when possible.
County Administrator Jason Rizner said one issue with attracting new people is the perception of low-income housing. He said of efforts like blight could help get the attention.
Durham said meeting consistently is important as is getting the word out to the community about what GICH can provide.
“Affordable housing is no longer only about low-income families. Today, it’s a middle-class issue. What is spent on housing connects to what can be spent on other areas of life,” he said. “That is starting to resonate with larger groups of people.”
Dean Nelson with the Middle Georgia Regional Commission gave an update about the Spring GICH retreat that took place in March. He said there were four major topics, Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), a state ARPA fund update, DCA rental assistance and Land Banking.
Nelson said the state has $7 million to award in CHIP grants. He said there are 23 applications for the funds, and the City of Gray is one of them. He said the announcement for the awards should be soon.
He said ARPA funds would be available this summer for affordable rental housing development, non-congregate shelter development and administration and support services for the programs.
Nelson said there is a single-family development program aimed at developers for the first time in several years. He said the developer must partner with the GA Dream program and make the homes affordable.
DCA rental assistance is aimed at renters affected by COVID. The program also provides assistance for those already in arrears.
Nelson said 84 percent of Land Bank property is property from tax foreclosures, but the Perry Gentle Sweet program is a friendlier way of code enforcement that could be an example of another way to use Land Banks.
Carr talked about the rubric for developers wanting GICH support for their projects and the possibility of incorporating the score sheets in their presentations to the city council and Jones County Board of Commissioners.
The next meeting of the GICH committee is 10 a.m., June 24, in the Charlotte Wilson Conference Room at the Government Center.
