About 44% of Savannah, Ga., families cannot afford quality housing, according to city officials.
In other words, almost 24,000 local households are cost burdened because they spend 30% or more of their income on housing, said Housing and Neighborhood Services Director Martin Fretty.
To address the issue, the city is considering some new affordable housing initiatives that were presented to the Savannah City Council during a recent workshop.
The initiatives include a $20 million investment to acquire, redevelop and sell 1,000 blighted properties over a 10-year period.
The investment would provide more affordable housing, while also reducing the number of abandoned properties that cost the city an average about $1,300 a year each in lost tax revenue and expenses related to police, fire and code enforcement services, Fretty said.
The city is hoping to get $10 million for the acquisition program included on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum going before voters this fall. The eventual sale of the properties would go back into a revolving fund and help drive down costs for future investments, Fretty said.
"After a couple of years you ought to be able to recover, we think, 80% of what we invested in the properties to acquire them," he said.
The city is expected to meet with Chatham County officials next month to discuss the SPLOST project list and determine Savannah's distribution share of the sales-tax revenue.
The city is also contemplating the implementation of an inclusionary zoning policy, similar to one established in Atlanta last year. The policy would require developers of apartment projects to include a certain percentage of affordable units or pay a one-time fee into a city housing fund. In turn, the developer could select from a list of incentives that could allow for more units, reduced parking requirements and a streamlined permitting process.
In Atlanta the program applies to areas where the city is experiencing the pressures of redevelopment, said Bridget Lidy, Savannah's director of planning and urban design. In Savannah, the Canal District, where the new arena is being built west of downtown, provides an opportunity for the program's launch, Lidy said.
"It's ripe for this," she said.
The proposal received general support from the council, although it is still early in the process. Lidy was encouraged to set up a meeting with Atlanta officials, who she said have expressed interest in helping Savannah establish their own initiative.
And City Manager Rob Hernandez said he thought the city would likely need to hire an outside consultant before they could develop an inclusionary zoning policy.
"I think we need to bring in the resources from other communities that have gone through that process," Hernandez said. "We haven't and there is a lot of stakeholder involvement and a lot of legalities involved."
In the meantime, the city has developed some proposed standards to reduce development costs and increase the amount of affordable housing, including the reduction of the minimum lot size and parking requirements in traditional neighborhoods. In addition, the city's proposed new zoning ordinance, NewZo, provides more flexibility for constructing accessory dwelling units, with no more than one bedroom, in some areas. City officials are planning for the new ordinance to be adopted in July after public hearings are held in June.
