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Athens Leaders Head to Missouri

ACC Government

A group of Athenians headed to Columbia, Missouri Wednesday, as part of an inner-city leadership visit. Columbia was selected since it has similar demographics as Athens.

The purpose of the trip is to gain insight and possible solutions to homelessness and other issues.

Representative Spencer Frye is Executive Director of the Athens Area Habitat for Humanity. He says the cities share similar demographics.

“It’s a population between 100 and 200-thousand, heavy university, has similar racial demographics to Athens,” Frye said. ‘They seem like they have been able to address some of the issues that I feel like we are just now starting to address in Athens and hopefully we can get some successful ways to do that.”

Frye says the group is comprised of people from various areas of interest.

“The Mayor’s going, the school superintendent’s going, so it’s a bunch of folks that can create policies to change the community.’

The trip was organized by the chamber of commerce.

“So the business community is actually coming forward to realize that these are issues that we do need to address as a community and again, they can maybe feel like they’re a part of the solution.”

WUGA and Habitat for Humanity are recording a ‘Housing Code Hack' next Wednesday at the Athens Library.

The event, which is open to the public, focuses on the affordable housing crisis in Athens. For more information, email wuga@uga.edu.