Sprawl and Affordable Housing

The plight of the residents of the Garden Springs Mobile Home Park has brought the issue of affordable housing to the attention of the entire community. The 100 families of Garden Springs are facing eviction and the loss of their homes to make way for a "luxury" student apartment complex, after the previous owner of the property sold it to a developer. Because the Garden Springs community is not letting the issue go away, Athens-Clarke is realizing that we have to come up with solutions to the affordable housing problem.

Allowing unmanaged growth is not one of those solutions. Some people claim that sprawl is good for affordable housing. They argue that any type of growth management necessarily leads to a reduction in affordable housing, and that therefore we should continue to allow sprawl development.

Our experience in Athens says otherwise. According to USA Today, Athens is one of the fastest-sprawling cities in the country; if sprawl is supposed to be so good for affordable housing, why is there so little affordable housing here?

Sprawl is bad for everybody. Its impacts are felt by all of us, no matter what our income level. The increase in air and water pollution affects everyone, both in terms of our health and in the costs to clean up and mitigate. The increased cost of infrastructure to service sprawl raises property taxes and drains money away from programs that could otherwise benefit all our residents. Sprawl doesn't drive housing prices down; it merely drives low-income people further and further out, requiring them to drive long distances to reach their jobs.

We don't need more sprawl; we need a comprehensive affordable housing policy.

The first step is a thorough study of housing in Athens-Clarke County. Housing is a complex issue; without reliable information on what we have and what we need, we can't hope to come up with a workable policy.

How you can help:

• Call your Commissioners and urge them to pursue a comprehensive study of Athens-Clarke housing, so that we can create and implement a realistic affordable housing policy.
• Contribute to the Athens Land Trust's fund for Garden Springs or to the new revolving loan fund being established to make low interest loans for sustainable affordable housing.

Donations for both funds can be sent to:

Athens Land Trust
195 Park Avenue
Athens, GA 30601