“We need more housing supply at lower prices,” Mayor Lester Miller of the central solution to the housing crisis cities are facing across the country. He was bringing greetings to the Georgia Municipal Association’s (GMA) Housing Access and Affordability Task Force and letting them know what Macon-Bibb was doing to alleviate the crisis. 

The Mayor talked about the city’s new Affordable Housing Fund, which was seeded with $7.5 million and is currently working to raise matching funds. The organization – guided by a board made up of representatives from Macon-Bibb, Macon Housing Authority, Land Bank Authority, School District, and others – will be researching ways to build more affordable housing.   

“What works in my community may not work in your community,” Mayor Miller said, telling them they need to identify their community’s needs and find the right solutions. He implored them to look for ways to have opportunities for people of different economic levels, from those experiencing homelessness to college graduates with no credit history to skilled workers moving to the city for new jobs to senior citizens to families.  

The Task Force is holding meetings in Dalton, Macon-Bibb, and Augusta to hear from local leadership in the public and private sectors and to better understand how housing issues manifest across the state. According to GMA, the focus of the meeting in Macon-Bibb was on planning and considerations, as well as planning and financing for infrastructure development.  

About the Housing Access and Affordability Task Force 
The Housing Access and Affordability Task Force was created to bring stakeholders together to cultivate lasting relationships and develop thoughtful solutions to address Georgia’s critical housing shortage. It is no secret that Georgia is in a housing crisis. Current and future Georgians deserve to live in the same community in which they work, and that starts with finding an affordable home that meets their needs. 

The stakeholders of this group are interested in discussing everything encompassing housing creation from the pressures on local infrastructure, service delivery responsibilities, the cost of regulatory fees, productive land use and increasing flexibility in zoning to the use of incentives to encourage investment in housing. 

Today, communities are struggling to resolve the conflicting concerns of first-time home buyers who want affordability and walkability and those of existing homeowners who want a quality of life unimpaired by growth.   

Employers report that retention of existing employees and recruitment of new employees has been damaged by this conflict because there is not enough affordable housing stock that meets their employee needs. We believe most communities can reach consensus on these issues through education, discussion, and planning, and we believe that this group can begin to cultivate such outcomes. This consensus will support long-term economic success for individual communities and Georgia as a whole. 

The goals of this stakeholder group are as follows: 

• To determine the challenges each stakeholder faces in housing supply versus demand. 
• To increase conversations between stakeholders in the planning of economic development projects and their respective workforce and housing needs. 
• To develop potential community, local and state level solutions to address Georgia’s critical housing shortage that is affecting local communities across the state. 
• To work collaboratively to create and share tools, incentives, and best practices for single-family housing creation. 
• To build relationships between local elected officials, the private sector representing housing creation and job creators to cultivate information sharing and increase trust. 
• To educate stakeholders on how to increase flexibility in local zoning regulations to reflect changing living patterns and housing preferences. 
• To establish common ground between the stakeholder groups to improve the quality of life in their local communities. 

The stakeholders taking part in this project include the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, the Georgia Association of REALTORS®, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia Municipal Association, the Home Builders Association of Georgia, and Habitat for Humanity of Georgia.