Couple of things
- Again, quite disappointing, but something I already knew. Athens-Clarke County lacks adequate affordable housing for its poor ... and by 'adequate' I really mean 'any.' A new study by the Athens Housing Authority, and presented to the Partners for a Prosperous Athens, revealed that no three-bedroom rental unit exists in this county under $500 per month
This problem has trigged us folks at IHN of Athens to launch a transitional housing program, where we require guests to put 30 percent of their income toward rent, and we pick up the slack. And then, through working with the guests and helping them acquire the necessary job skills and financial management skills, move them toward finding long-term residence somewhere in town.
- I'm trying to determine my reading list, and where to go next. I'm about done with Take It Back (which might be James Carville's best book since We're Right, They're Wrong). I've got three in my possession to turn to next - The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (graciously loaned to me by my boss) and Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne LaMott.
I've wanted to read DuBois for a while now, but LaMott's book was pretty entertaining when I thumbed through it a while ago.
- Coco Crisp makes a remarkable, game-saving catch and the Red Sox win their 12th straight ... their longest win-streak in 11 years.
- Georgia Sports Blog gets all official with a discussion about John Soloski's suit against Michael Adams.
This problem has trigged us folks at IHN of Athens to launch a transitional housing program, where we require guests to put 30 percent of their income toward rent, and we pick up the slack. And then, through working with the guests and helping them acquire the necessary job skills and financial management skills, move them toward finding long-term residence somewhere in town.
- I'm trying to determine my reading list, and where to go next. I'm about done with Take It Back (which might be James Carville's best book since We're Right, They're Wrong). I've got three in my possession to turn to next - The Souls of Black Folks by W.E.B. DuBois, Origins of the New South, 1877-1913 (graciously loaned to me by my boss) and Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne LaMott.
I've wanted to read DuBois for a while now, but LaMott's book was pretty entertaining when I thumbed through it a while ago.
- Coco Crisp makes a remarkable, game-saving catch and the Red Sox win their 12th straight ... their longest win-streak in 11 years.
- Georgia Sports Blog gets all official with a discussion about John Soloski's suit against Michael Adams.
posted by Jmac at 7:26 AM
9 Comments:
It was a shock for Wendy and me to move here from Columbia SC, as we were spoiled by the amazingly cheap rentals there. We're suitably accommodated now, but it would have helped us out tremendously to pay off our debts had we had comparable rates as we had in SC.
Does IHN have an income cap for those eligible for the program you discussed? Just wondering.
As of now, we're operating the program on a limited basis, and it's only open to families who have been a part of the Network.
The income cap, if you're wondering, doesn't really exist. You just have to meet the basic qualifications, as defined by the government, for being homeless. And our organization requires that you have children.
However, expanding our transitional housing program to those possibly outside of the Network is something I'd be interested in seeing us do. Though we're quite far from even attempting that.
I'd be curious to see data from Athens compared with, say, Austin, Texas ... or another similar-sized college town. Columbia, S.C., at least, was the state's capital city with a larger population. It is the student housing which directly impacts the value of the rental housing in this community, which is why I'd like to see if this is an isolated trend or one other college towns of our size and make-up experience.
JMac-
1. Do you know your links are way down at the bottom of your home page? Probably so, but it's been that way for a couple weeks now.
2. How 'bout all that foaming at the mouth at Georgia Sports Blog about the Soloski-Adams thing? I'm not going to get into a defense of Adams here, but I've grown very tired of the willingness of many in Dawgland to pile on Adams at any opportunity, for any reason, without any regard for facts.
Darren
Yeah, I need to tinker with my template some. In some browsers, everything is OK, but others not so much.
I haven't gone into it too much at Georgia Sports Blog, but my whole point was that, yeah, I've got some issues with Adams's management as well, but let's not use Soloski as the prime example. Soloski has a laundry list of problems to deal with, so the decision to remove him from his deanship seemed appropriate to me.
Hi All
The problem with affordable housing in Clarke County, or rather the lack thereof, if that we have all but legislated it out of existence. Regarding renters, the “definition of family” ordinance effectively prohibits cost sharing among unrelated persons in the AR and RS zones. In single-family neighborhoods, the prices of stick-built homes are inflated by a variety of zoning ordinances, such as those concerning tree removal, mass grading, density restrictions, etc. People can argue as to the desirability of such ordinances on “quality of life” grounds, but what is not arguable is that they have the unintended consequence of driving up the cost of any housing constructed in the county. Assuming that none of those ordinances are going to be repealed, what choices are left? What follows is verbatim from my campaign web site (www.VoteGarland.org):
The Commission should reconsider the “definition of family” ordinance as it pertains to the AR and RS zones (Part III, Section 9-15-18), out of which the entire rental registration fiasco of 2003 grew. A somewhat surprising Municipal Court decision in 2005 invalidated the ordinance as it applied to the RM zones. Even so, I feel that what remains of the current ordinance is too restrictive.
Also:
The Commission should establish a separate and dedicated zoning category specifically tailored to mobile homes, which comprise the best market-based solution to the issue of affordable housing. Unfortunately, since city-county unification, the Commission has all but excluded mobile homes from most areas of the county. Class A mobile homes (multi-sectional or double-wides) are limited to existing parks or large lots in the AR zones. Class B mobile homes (single-wides) have been restricted to existing parks for years. While recognizing that mobile homes may not fit in with traditional stick-built home neighborhoods, we have done the low-income among us no favors by excluding from the county the best housing option available to them.
I feel that efforts to mandate “inclusionary zoning” in the county are misdirected. The resulting housing would not be “affordable,” it would instead be subsidized. Someone other than the person paying the submarket rate mandated by government will be required to make up the difference, whether it is the other residents of a given development or the taxpayers.
I saw your comments over there, and I think you're spot-on.
Just because Adams is on one side of the dispute does not automatically make the person on the other side of the dispute right.
It's the "Adams Bliders") effect -- once Adams is involved, all they see is him.
Darren
Thanks for posting James. Let me get some time and sift through your comments, and I can put up a response for you. Glad to see you engaging on this topic.
Agreed Darren, and that's a perfect way to summarize that point-of-view. I mean, you don't have to automatically side with anyone who opposes someone you don't agree with.
I mean, while I may be a Democrat, if someone accused President Bush of killing puppies, I wouldn't exactly say 'way to go dude' just because I don't like the man's economic policies. At some point you have to go 'yeah, I disagree with that guy, but not for that reason.'
re:affordable housing and Athens' ordinances
history does not bear out the arguments put forth by Mr. Garland. back in the day when there was a kind of "gentlemen's agreement" amongst the good ol' boys to ignore the unrelated residents ordinance, housing was not cheaper and was not getting cheaper. in fact, the opposite was true because landlord speculators were artifically inflating the costs of single family housing because they could outbid any reasonable offer and make their money back quickly by packing in a bunch of students. not only was housing getting more expensive, traditional single family neighborhoods were becoming off-campus dorms.
same with manufactured housing since most of it was being rented to our poorest citizens and the typical living conditions were like third-world as the renters felt they had no recourse with landlords who were neglecting them to an almost criminal standard. the newspapers were full of this stuff just a few short years ago (for those who may be new to Athens or have a really short memory). the inaction of that bunch is in large part what led to most of them being voted out of office.
what we had before is definitely not better than what we see now and it isn't really honest for our real estate speculators and their buddies to try to play the "affordable housing" card though I can't blame them for trying because it might work with folks who don't think.
for every problem, there is a solution that is obvious, simple, and wrong.
Jmac - I don't think this issue is one of whether or not Soloski is right or wrong.
It's more troublesome that the process for convicting him without letting him air his side of the story is what bothers me.
Which is typical of the way Adams does business.
pwd
Post a Comment
<< Home