Macon-Bibb hosts summit to tackle affordable housing as cost of living rises
Natalie Bouyett, executive director of the Macon Affordable Housing Fund, says she hopes the summit will help move the city’s vision of affordable living forward.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – As inflation continues to strain family budgets, affordable housing has become harder to find in Macon. To address the issue, the Macon-Bibb County Land Bank Authority hosted a summit on Wednesday aimed at advancing affordable housing initiatives across the city.
Natalie Bouyett, executive director of the Macon Affordable Housing Fund, says she hopes the summit will help move the city’s vision of affordable living forward.
“It introduces developers in our county, as well as outside our county, to all the great resources that we have at their disposal as well as helps outline the process, so they know what to expect when they come to work for Macon-Bibb County,” she said.
As of now, the housing fund has $2 million available to leverage. An additional $16 million will be used to bring affordable housing to the historic Pleasant Hill neighborhood. Bouyett says the goal is to restore the community to what it once was.
“We hope that we will just have more affordable housing options come up on the market,” she said. “Everything from rental units to houses you can buy. We want to support the home ownership, but overall, just affordability. When people can afford their homes, they can afford healthcare, they can afford education, they can just afford a better quality of life.”
Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller attended the summit and said the event will help the community continue to grow.
“One of the challenges we always have when building affordable homes is having enough folks to do that, and enough staffing to do that,” he said. “And really having people thinking outside the box and coming up with ways to partner. So, I think by having this summit it’s going to build capacity for our community and enable us to move forward at a much larger scale and more rapid pace to build houses.”
Mayor Miller says he’s heard many complaints about the rising cost of living and hopes that affordable housing will help families in other areas of their daily lives.
“Eggs going up, the price of milk is going up,” he said. “Some things are coming down, but the bottom line is people have less money at the end of the day. Certainly, all the wages aren’t on the rise. You know, housing is one of those things that you have to have. So, we hope by loaning a lot of this money we have and at low interest rate, it will continue to enable people to get into the housing they can afford, to free up money for other things they have in their lives.”
