Athenians are invited to a Housing Code Hack community event at the Athens-Clarke Library.
Athens Area habitat for Humanity is teaming up with WUGA for a forum featuring elected officials, developers and community leaders.
The event is aimed at addressing concerns regarding the shortage of affordable housing.
Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Spencer Frye.
“Athens-Clarke County is the smallest county in the state of Georgia and almost half of the land is owned by university or nonprofits or churches, and so it really restricts the available land for housing,” according to Frye.
“For a lot of people in this town they are paying more than 30% of their income towards their housing expense and that’s the federal definition of housing stressed.”
Marketing Director Paul Farr says affordable housing helps the entire community.
“When somebody is able to come into one of our units and get that down to that 30% level, on average it frees up an additional 48% of disposable income,” Farr said.
“Now that’s money they can put into the economy. They can spend that on clothing, on food, on their kid’s education, start saving and build wealth.”
Frye says a Housing Code hack will help develop a work-around to help develop specific policies to increase the housing stock.
The event is Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 pm. Questions can be submitted at wuga@uga.edu, or on our Facebook page. The discussion will be recorded and will air during a special presentation of Athens News Matters.
