GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga — This past week over 200 government and business leaders along with a number of non-profit groups gathered in Duluth to brainstorm on ways to lower the rising cost of housing.
The Atlanta Regional Commission says that roughly one in three residents in the area are now spending over 30 percent of their income on the places that they live.
“While the incomes are increasing, the housing costs both for renters and homeowners is rising at an exponential rate and that gap is widening,” said Samyukth Shenbaga with the ARC. “Housing is no longer just a city of Atlanta issue.”
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The Atlanta Regional Commission put on the Summit to get those who can create change in the same room and turn their ideas into action.
“It is not something where we can only have municipal governments or the private sector solve the housing crisis by itself,” Shenbaga said.
One project in Gwinnett County offers a glimpse of what a solution can look like.
A run down, extended-stay hotel on Jimmy Carter Boulevard is in the process of being converted into 73 permanently affordable apartments.
Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson spoke to Laquasha Williams, who will be one of the first residents once the project is complete.
“it makes you feel like you can get stability one day when you came from nothing,” Williams said.
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The ARC says that more working families are becoming a risk for homelessness as their rent eats up a bigger chunk of their income.
They said getting ideas from the wide range of groups at the summit is just the start.
“It’s a shared responsibility, and there’s shared solutions,” Shenbaga said. “So one is in this alone, no one’s going to get out of this alone.”
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The regional commission hopes the first summit leads to many more until they can solve this growing problem.
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