Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs has launched a Public Housing Authority survey to identify affordable housing needs across the state. GAHRA is partnering with DCA and Georgia Housing and Finance Authority to conduct a statewide inventory of all public housing authorities. DCA and HFA are preparing a Housing Needs Assessment and have expressed their interest in learning about the affordable housing needs for PHAs across the state. Based on the survey responses, DCA and HFA will evaluate their current policies, programs and funding resources to determine how they might better assist PHAs in preserving and developing affordable housing for many of Georgia’s lowest income residents. Click here to access the survey: Safe & Affordable Housing | Georgia Department of Community Affairs (ga.gov)

GAHRA will host DCA at its December 16^th meeting where a second presentation on how to complete the Excel-based survey will be made. If you have an opportunity to start completing the survey before then and find you have questions, plan to join us for that meeting. DCA’s consultants can answer all your questions and help you on your way to completing the survey. GAHRA has also posted a recording of its November 18^th meeting that includes a walk-through of the survey. You may find viewing that recording helpful before and while you’re completing the survey. For those who participated in that meeting, one new feature was added. After selecting the name of your PHA, you are asked to indicate the county in which you are located. (And the few glitches have been corrected!)

GAHRA’s goal is to achieve a 100% response rate to ensure that DCA has a complete profile of all Georgia’s PHAs and a clear understanding of our funding needs to best serve our lowest income residents.

If you need assistance, you can email Christopher Dunne at christopher@highland-planning.com, one of the consultants working with DCA.