Rome takes aim at lack of affordable housing
♦ Commissioners consider ways to help builders offset the risk of middle income homes.
Affordable housing and how to deal with a significant shortage of it in Rome has become an overarching topic in development talks.
One of the questions at the city commission retreat this week was how to incentivize developers to invest in middle income price range developments. That level of development is a risky prospect, City Commissioner Craig Mcdaniel said during the discussion.
Developers pay the price up front through loans and begin to pay interest from day one, Mcdaniel said.
The financial risk of a mid-level development is higher than a higher cost home because the eventual reward is less. That’s why there are plenty of homes above the $500,000 price tag available here, but not in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.
Even with new jobs being created and millions invested in the expansion of existing industries — Ball Corp. and Kerry Foods, for example — there’s no housing available for new workers.
And it’s not just housing for expanding or newly recruited industries, it’s housing for people filling just about any local job vacancies.
“I have a ( school) superintendent telling me I need places for new teachers to live,” City Manager Sammy Rich said.
But an investment has a price tag.
For example, City Commissioner Mark Cochran asked if the city could front the bill for water and sewer connections or even paving, to help defray construction costs.
Rich agreed that those connections and services are key to development but the city would need to consider how to recoup those costs.
“We need to be looking at rate increases, because it’s expensive to be in the water and sewer business,” he said.
The investment in middle income housing will likely show a return in property taxes, Commissioner Craig Mcdaniel said.
The commissioner also said the city has made a lot of concessions for business developments but not for housing developments. Looking back, Mcdaniel said, housing developers flocked to Floyd County when large industries — such as Georgia Kraft and GE — set up shop here.
But that hasn’t been the case for some time, and one of the things industries consider when looking at an area is available housing.
“If you’re going to treat residential the same way (as industry), at what point do we step in to help those developers prepare that site,” Rome- Floyd County Development Authority President Missy Kendrick asked the group.
Several of the city commissioners had met with housing developers recently to talk over the issues builders face and what would spur those mid-level income developments.
Many residential developers got out of the business in the housing crash between 2008 and 2012. The market was too risky, Mcdaniel said. “They don’t mind putting their money into it, they’re just looking for help,” Commissioner Jim Bojo said.