City of Louisville granted $2.2 Million for Rural Workforce Housing Program

LOUISVILLE, Ga. (WJBF) – Last week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced the third round of grant recipients from the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative.

Announced in the Governor’s 2023 State of the State Address, the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative is helping to spur the development of much needed workforce housing in communities in the state.

The Georgia General Assembly approved $35.7 million to begin the initiative in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget, and an additional $50 million in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

More than $6.3 million in infrastructure development will support more than 123 housing units across three rural communities in the Peach state.

Two of the communities chosen were Lyons, Georgia, and Savannah, Georgia–but the third was Louisville out of Jefferson County.

The city is receiving a $2.2 Million infrastructure grant thanks to Governor Kemp.

Louisville Mayor Jenny Smith says this grant is helping fund a solution to a problem that is not new to the area.

“We have identified a severe need for workforce housing for middle income housing in our community of Louisville,” said Smith. “We’ve had several grants in the past, and we’ve used them very wisely to build up our housing stock. It’s a huge step, but it’s really a continuing step in that program that we began some years ago.”

Smith this grant is especially helpful because it covers the cost of building a new home–which isn’t easy to come by for a small town like Louisville.

“65% of our housing stock is over 45 years old. The reason that is true is because the building cost for a home is going to be more than what you can sell it for–so therefore we don’t have any that are built. The only way we’ll be getting new housing is this type of grant,” Smith said.

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The money will go towards building the necessary water, sewer, street, and drainage improvements for the 18-acre Chestnut Subdivision.

From there, local development partner Molly’s Food and Fuel will build 46 workforce homes and townhomes.

“24 of them will be multi-family apartments–perhaps rental. The balance of them will be homes that the developer will build and sell,” Smith said.

City Administrator Richard Sapp says the focus is to build these homes with the intention of drawing people from Jefferson and surrounding counties to fill area jobs.

“A goal of ours is increasing home ownership in our community, but they can market it to whoever it is. It’s not just for our citizens, but bring people from other communities,” said Sapp.

Sapp adds that he and the city are optimistic about this project, saying there is a noticeable trend of people moving to rural communities.

“We are starting to see a trend in the nation where people are trying to get out of the big cities–our great lifestyle and small communities is attractive to a lot of people who want to get out of the hustle and bustle,” Sapp said. “With the remoteness of a lot of jobs now, they can do that in a more rural setting. It’s a little slower pace, and we want to give them an opportunity to come join us.”

Smith says this money helps the town look forward to the future.

“Mostly what it does for us is any small towns, it gives us a sense of hope for the future. When you’re building homes, you have hope–and people see that, and it makes your community thrive.”

Molly’s Food and Fuel currently has locations in Thomson, Crawfordsville, and Warrenton, but a new location will soon come to Louisville.

Smith says they will operate on site, and will start operating this November.

The developer will then build and sell the homes over the next two years.

The entire project is scheduled to finish in May 2028.

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