SAVANNAH, Ga (WSAV) – Savannah City Council held a workshop meeting on Thursday to discuss housing affordability.
According to Housing Savannah, a local non-profit, for over 30 years, housing cost outpaced income. A survey done by a local task force found that 21,000 or 40% of Savannah households could not afford housing.
“That time, if you made less than $55,000 a year as a household, you probably couldn’t afford housing,” Martin Freddy, housing and neighborhood services director said. “That figure is ticked up to about 65,000[dollars].”
In 2021, city council adopted a 10-year Housing Savannah Action Plan, and it officially launched in in 2022.
“When I was elected and took office in 2020, Savannah had never had an affordable housing plan,” Mayor Van Johnson said. “I remember in our initial discussions about it and we wanted to be big and we wanted to be bold and we were wanting to include everybody.”
Because of Housing Savannah’s investments, they told us they have helped a more than 1,950 households in nearly three years.