NWGHA seeking labor grant
The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority wants to put young adults to work.
The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority is seeking a U.S. Department of Labor YouthBuild grant that it hopes will put young men without a job to work.
Sandra Hudson, housing authority executive director, said the $900,000 grant application is due to federal authorities by May 9.
Hudson said the grant would be used to help young men learn a trade. She explained that anyone in Rome and Floyd County can be hired with the assistance of grant funds, not just residents of public housing.
“In my travels around the city I see young, very young guys, just standing around doing nothing,” Hudson said. “I’ve heard so many say I want to own my own business. They don’t want to work for anybody. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC, they will have an opportunity to learn these trades.”
Hudson said most of the work would be done on housing authority developments, but private developers
can also come in as a partner.
“We can pay the participants a stipend; we can get money for travel. It’s not just for me. And if
they have children this grant can also pay for daycare,” she said.
The DOL requires all YouthBuild grant recipients to raise a minimum of 25 percent in matching funds for the program. Hudson did not detail which portion of the agency’s budget the matching funds would come from.
NWGHA Board Chairman Lee Hight said the authority is making contacts in a bid to get Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to visit Rome to see the authority’s work in changing the face of public housing as well as the perception of those who live in public housing.
“We’re doing a lot of things outside the box,” Hight said.
Hudson also said she has started the process of seeking to redevelop 125 housing units between Maple Avenue and East 14th Street in East Rome, the site of the former Altoview Terrace housing complex.
“There is truly a need in this community,” Hudson said. She said the development
would likely be undertaken as a tax credit project supported by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Of the 125 units, 33 are earmarked for replacement housing for units in the Willingham Village complex in West Rome that are proposed for demolition. The housing authority also wrote off $13,988 in uncollectible debts. Director of Housing Kimberly Lewis told the board she has already taken steps to make sure those who left the debts would not qualify for public housing anyplace else in the country until the debts are paid in Rome.