GHCBA hosts a panel discussion on Gilmer County housing

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GHCBA discusses housing

GILMER COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia High Country Builders Association hosted a panel discussion, entitled Help Gilmer Thrive, on April 19. The six person panel focused on housing issues within Gilmer County and directly responded to questions submitted by citizens.

The Panel

Guest speakers discuss housing experience.

The speakers shared their own experiences with the panel and audience.

The panel consisted of six speakers, including Gilmer County Post 2 Commissioner Karleen Ferguson, who is also Co-chair for The Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH). The other panelists included President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Georgia Ryan Willoughby, Carrie Roeger, the Second Vice-Chair of the National Association of Homebuilders 55+ Housing Council, and Austin Hackney, the Executive VP for the Home Builder Association of Georgia. Marshall Aiken, the Director of Development for Beverly J. Searles Foundation, and Betsy L. Sheppard, the founder and CEO of Gilbert & Sheppard, were also on the panel.

Before the panel began answering questions, a video was played for the audience. Notably, it highlighted a poverty rate of over 17 percent in Gilmer County and the need for better housing options. Three guest speakers also shared their personal experiences with the county’s housing issues. Leslie Thomas, President of the  Gilmer Historical Society, spoke on her own struggle to find a suitable, affordable home. She shared that she had to leave the county to do so.

The Discussion

The panelists answered several questions about housing over the course of the event. They largely focused on affordable housing needs for the workforce and senior citizens of Gilmer County.

Willoughby first stressed the importance of housing, not only as a basic human need, but as a foundation for a community: “When people don’t have access to that, they find it somewhere else. And when they find it somewhere else, it means that businesses close, it means that schools deteriorate, it means that neighborhoods deteriorate, it means the entire community goes down.”

When discussing housing options, Aiken addressed several misconceptions about “tax credit communities” and Willoughby advocated for more starter homes. Both Hackney and Aiken also noted restrictive zoning in Gilmer County that can often make housing more expensive. Post 2 Commissioner Karleen Ferguson spoke specifically about Gilmer County’s needs, and shared the benefits the community will receive now that they are a Georgia Initiative for Community Housing participant. “I believe that this community can work together as I’ve seen us do in so many other ways. That we can work together and us decide the route we want to take for our community. That keeps our community rural, keeps our quality of life, but figures out this problem,” Ferguson said.

The event, with a run time of over two hours, addressed housing concerns that are currently at the forefront of community conversation and local government action. The discussion is covered in more depth here.

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