The City of Gainesville was named one of the five grant recipients of the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative.
The initiative will contribute more than $10.3 million in infrastructure development, with Gainesvillle receiving $2.5 million of it.
“That was the main goal here, is trying to find some more affordable housing for our community,” Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon said.
Couvillon said that there were a number of municipalities Gainesville competed with across the state. The Department of Community Affairs came to Gainesville, where Couvillon said he and his staff along with developer Frank Norton met with them to present what they would do with the infrastructure grant.
The infrastructure money will allow the City of Gainesville to improve the stormwater infrastructure on city owned property that Couvillon says is essentially in a “floodplain.”
This will make the city-owned land buildable, allowing for The Gainesville Nonprofit Development Foundation to construct 17-23 single-family homes and The Norton Agency to construct 66 rental housing units in the area south of Jekyll Brewery and the old train depot near Marler Street.
“When you have the average home price being $450,000 you have to figure what are the people who need affordable housing, what are they paying?” Couvillon said.
Couvillon says the affordability will come from the land being city-owned and building 20 at a time as opposed to “one house here, one house there” to build it cheaper.
Residents will then be able to apply and will qualify for affordable housing based on income.
The City of Gainesville is contributing to the total project cost of $3.8 million.
