Grady County tackles housing task force concerns
Published 3:32 am Tuesday, July 22, 2014
CAIRO — Grady County is in the process of revamping its housing task force.
Commissioner Al Ball, who is a member of the task force, informed the board of commissioners June 19 that the group’s appointed chair, David Kantz, recently willingly stepped down and Code Enforcement Director Larry Ivy has been appointed interim chair while the committee regroups itself.
“This is not to criticize anyone, but the focus was off from where we wanted it to be,” explained Ball in a phone interview. “It wasn’t going in the direction of research and trying to get a good picture of the community needs and resources. Mr. Ivy was selected by the group as interim chair until a new chair can be determined and the task force can regroup.”
The county has been working on the issue since the summer of 2006.
An incident that helped bring it to the forefront of the county’s palate involved a baby falling out of a mobile home where the door would not close at Thompson Trailer Park. It was deemed unlivable, but alternate housing options were scarce.
“We’ve had a lot of building going on and permits and plats to approve, but most of those have been from a high– end level,” said Ball. “A concern of mine is, if we keep going in that direction and not have housing available for people with basic income that is affordable and up to standard, eventually we’re going to have a real housing problem on our hands. The general concern was, how can we bring resources into the county to help average citizens afford to buy property or have available properties to rent that are decent? We asked people who were interested in looking at our housing situation to do some research and come back to the commission with some insight into what the problems are and what suggestions they had for us moving forward.”
The county held a workshop with local organizations to discuss housing conditions and brainstorm ideas for improvement. The task force — featuring community volunteers — was organized from that workshop and it meets once a month.
Ball, who has discussed the need for change in the task force at previous board meetings, told the Times-Enterprise he really knew it was time for a change when information began floating around that, if enforcement was to be religiously adhered to, then approximately 9,000 people would be displaced from their homes.
“We got calls from the Department of Community Affairs and the governor’s office,” said Ball. “We knew that wasn’t what was supposed to be happening and that’s when I said the task force needs to regroup. We need to go back and restructure toward the basic long-term goals of the task force, to encourage housing for working class persons, do some studies and see what is available.”
Ivy said the role of the task force is to be the commission’s eyes and ears on what is going on in the county.
“The main thing I’m seeing as a problem area is property maintenance,” said Ivy on Friday. “The money that needs to be put on property maintenance — home repairs — is not being done. We get four to five calls on a complaint basis, but the reason this is not much is because the county has no extra inventory of places to go. It’s kind of a catch-22, a place is condemned because it is a bad situation, but the occupants don’t know where to go.”
He feels that housing options would need to go to the city because only one house per acre can be erected in the county due to a one septic tank per well regulation.
“The city can utilize its sewer and water,” said Ivy.
City Manager William Whitson said Friday that Cairo is looking into the situation.
“The mayor and I have talked about the need to select a person to represent the city on the task force,” he said. “We’re considering it, have spoken to the county administrator and promised to get back with him on this soon.”
Ball said he would like to collaborate with the city, DCA, RDC and other agencies.
“I like to see cooperation between governments in order for them to provide the funding and technical assistance necessary for their community,” he said.