Gwinnett affordable housing project proposed

Birge & Held redevelopment company has proposed a 168-unit apartment complex geared to residents who make between $35,349 and $51,660 a year — or 60% of the area’s median income.

The land has been zoned for manufactured homes and single family homes for decades, but rocks near the Alcovy River property make it too expensive to develop, said Jarrod Brown, a Birge & Held managing director. His company plans to sell affordable housing tax credits to finance the construction, meaning there will be money available to deal with the tough terrain.

George Burgan, the communications director for the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, said his group has been working to increase affordable housing in Gwinnett. The county has had an increase in both renters and poverty, he said, and an increasing number of people are rent-burdened — spending more than half their paycheck on housing and transportation costs.

Ideally, Burgan said, affordable housing wouldn’t be congregated in one area. But he said the tax credits that would allow the project to be built are “critically important.”

See the full story by Arielle Kass of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution