EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece was originally published in the Spring 2019 magazine.
The University of Georgia drives a statewide economic impact greater than $6.3B according to 2019 estimates. In recent years, the University has become a boon for entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and business leadership and has consequently become more competitive on a national scale. While these impacts are worthy of praise, the University’s relationship with the local community in Athens-Clarke County (ACC)—Georgia’s poorest county—presents a challenge that must not be overlooked.
Poverty in ACC makes no effort to ensconce itself. With 34.4% of its citizens under the U.S. Census’ poverty threshold, Athens ranks within the top thirty most impoverished places in America. Night and day, Athens’ homeless population squats throughout the county, whether on a street corner in the Classic City or under the Exit 6 bridge on the outskirts of town. Section 8 Housing lies within a stone’s throw of University dorms filled with thousands of students. In a dismal irony, the impoverished often live from paycheck to paycheck, supporting a student population that is significantly better off and drives up local costs of living. Thus, “the economy is sharply divided between professors, doctors, researchers and administrators, and the workers who provide the colleges with basic services,” according to Richard Florida, who studies economic segregation in U.S. metros.
The fact that such a disparity exists should not come as a surprise. College students are recognized as a relatively affluent group across the U.S.. It is the size of the disparity, rather, that is surprising. In 2013, the Equality of Opportunity Project found that the year’s graduating class had a median household income of $129,800. During that same period, ACC residents earned a median of $32,959 per household, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The metrics engender severe repercussions for local residents. Naturally, businesses in downtown Athens cater to the deep pockets of many University students—pockets lined with cash earned on incomes largely unavailable in town—outpricing locals from areas around campus. Athens’ skyline has become increasingly dotted with pricy student apartments. Rents in these “private dorm” developments can cost students anywhere from $800-$1,300 per month. These apartments stand as monuments to the wealth gap in Athens. Factoring in living expenses and HOPE subsidized tuition, student residents can quickly generate expenditures surpassing the $32,959 metric for local household income.
These developments were built atop land parcels that were not technically designated for affordable housing provisions, according to Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz. Even still, Mayor Girtz acknowledges the criticism that upscale developments have received for “[pricing] people out of the market…even for [those] making two to three times minimum wage.”
This problem does not exist within a vacuum. In fact, college towns are overrepresented in the nation’s most impoverished municipalities. Yet, some would argue that income inequality is not as bad as census numbers make it seem, because college students who live off-campus count as households to the Census Bureau, and thus, skew income estimates downwards if they have lower incomes. However, factoring out college students, median household income only increases a mere 12% to $37,000, still a third of that with which most students grew up, and of course, the majority of these students do not live a mishap away from homelessness. Additionally, students can afford a higher level of expenditures and often come into college more financially secure than locals, exemplifying both consumption and wealth inequality, respectively.
Athens, named in reference to classic Greek scholarship, developed first as an intellectual center. In truth, both the University as an institution and its student body have gone to considerable lengths to fight the Classic City’s endemic poverty cycle: “By serving as host to UGA and several other colleges, Athens is in a position with lots of well-educated people and resources [to alleviate homelessness],” Mayor Girtz remarked.
The University provides funding for the ACC Transit System, and. with nearly 11,000 employees, is the city’s largest employer. It has recognized the fact that attending UGA may seem unattainable to local students and has endeavored to invite ACC students to campus during every year from K-12 through its outreach programs. The University’s Embark program provides much-needed support to homeless students, and in recent years, over 370 Georgia Commitment Scholarships have been created to sponsor students in need.
In 2019, Mayor Girtz intends to focus on affordable housing and plans to “assign a project to the Planning Commission to consider incentives to developers to ensure that more of the housing developed includes a mixed income and affordable housing component.” He plans to follow the Housing First models implemented in Phoenix, AZ, and Nashville, TN, which focuses on providing shelter for the homeless, along with case management for those suffering from substance and domestic abuse.
Fortunatley, rapid re-housing policies have proven effective solutions to chronic homelessness. Coupled with the University’s resources, poverty in ACC may finally begin to diminish in its most severe forms. Even still, Athens faces an arduous path towards solving the incongruity on either side of Broad Street.
It is up to Mayor Girtz to get the ball
rolling.