Gilmer is among five Georgia counties that will participate in the next Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH).
The public-private program offers communities a three-year program of collaboration and technical assistance related to housing and community development, according to a release from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
The primary objective of GICH is to help communities create and launch a plan to meet their housing needs. The other four counties recently picked for the program are Baldwin, Chattooga, Rabun and Towns.
Participating should help Gilmer work toward developing a comprehensive community housing plan, which it currently doesn’t have, noted Kent Sanford, director of the Greater Gilmer Joint Development Authority.
“We’re excited to be included in this three-year learning process to see what has been beneficial in other communities and what might work here for a comprehensive community housing plan,” he added.
A team of around 20 representatives from Gilmer County, Ellijay and East Ellijay will include personnel from local churches, nonprofits, the school system, planning departments, large employers and other stakeholders, Sanford said. That team will receive training and technical instruction through a series of conferences and seminars held over the next three years.
GICH is a collaboration between several entities including the University of Georgia Housing and Demographics Department, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and the Georgia Municipal Association. Georgia Power provides funding for the program.
The need for more affordable housing options in Gilmer has been a hot topic for much of the past year. The team hopes to find local solutions that will work for most everyone, Sanford said.
“Partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity will be one of our first efforts,” he added.
A comprehensive housing plan can be basic or complex, Sanford noted. The most basic plan would address such topics as current supply and demand of housing and mismatches that could negatively impact the community, he added.
“For example, do we have an adequate supply of housing for police, firefighters, educators and other workers providing essential services,” Sanford said.
At a July meeting of the Ellijay City Council, Sanford described GICH as an educational opportunity that will allow representatives from the county and two cities to be more informed about how other Georgia communities address their housing needs. He said Gilmer, Ellijay and East Ellijay also applied for the program last year, but weren’t accepted.
“We can see what has worked well in other communities and what hasn’t worked well in other communities. It’s best in communities our size when you have the county and both cities working together,” Sanford told councilmembers in July.
The next GICH sessions will start sometime in 2022, and the local team of representatives could possibly change over the program’s three-year span, Sanford noted.