State awards second round of grants through new rural housing program

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Gov. Brian Kemp

ATLANTA — The state awarded more than $9 million Monday to support more than 400 housing units in four Georgia communities, the second round of grants through a program Gov. Brian Kemp created last year.

The Rural Workforce Housing Initiative, which Kemp announced during his annual State of the State address last January, includes $35.7 million to help spur the development of critically needed workforce housing across the state. The first round of grants totaling nearly $8.4 million was announced last September.

“This latest round of grants will help four more communities provide the needed infrastructure to meet demand as even more opportunity comes to rural parts of our state,” Kemp said Monday. “Georgians deserve to be able to live in the same communities where they work, and this program is helping make sure they can.”

Three of the grants, worth about $2.5 million each, are going to the cities of Alma and Vidalia, and to the Development Authority of Donalsonville and Seminole County.

Alma’s grant will go to construct water, sewer, and street improvements to accommodate 60 new homes at the 40-acre Teresa’s Estate subdivision. Vidalia will use its funding for water, sewer, street, and drainage improvements for the Triple Oaks subdivision, which will include 70 homes and the capacity for an additional 150 in the second and third phases of the project.

The grant to the Development Authority of Donalsonville and Seminole County will go toward the necessary water, sewer, and drainage improvements for 53 homes in the first phase of a subdivision. The development also has the capacity for an additional 67 homes.

The fourth grant, for $1.5 million, will go to the Dalton-Whitfield County Joint Development Authority for street and stormwater drainage required to complete the South Hamilton Residential Infill Project, which will support 39 new homes.

In addition to meeting OneGeorgia Authority requirements, applicants for the grants leveraged other funding sources to demonstrate community commitment to increasing access to affordable workforce housing.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Capitol Beat.