A local nonprofit organization has launched a petition to put an affordable housing ordinance before the Athens-Clarke County mayor and commission.
Athens Anti-Discrimination Movement founder and Executive Director, Mokah Jasmine Johnson, says the drafted ordinance is connected to last year’s controversial racial justice resolution.
“After they passed the resolution, we asked them is that [an ordinance] what y’all are gonna work on? And they didn’t do anything,” Johnson said. “So now it’s left on us, the community members that’s been working on this for over a year. The goal now is to put pressure on them, and hopefully they will put it on the agenda.”
The ordinance, which Johnson says was shown to some Commissioners, would establish protections for renters, fund programs to prevent eviction, and increase advocacy efforts by local officials for housing affordability policies like rent control at the state level.
Jasmine says the organization is seeking over a thousand signatures for the petition, which has been circulating since mid-January.
