Greene County needs more housing options for families, but the options don’t need to be targeted toward those with lower incomes. Those are among the conclusions drawn from a workforce housing study conducted in June.
The study was conducted by Greene County Development Corporation, the Jefferson city council and the Greene County supervisors, with input from Larry and Margaret Saddoris, owners of several local rental units. Region XII Council of Governments provided help with tabulations and the online Survey Monkey version of the survey. Ken Paxton, GCDC executive director, did the analysis and wrote the final report.
The survey resulted from a meeting held last April to consider hiring a consultant to help develop a public-private partnership to develop incentives for housing in the county. A needs assessment was the first step in the process.
Paxton provided an overview of the survey results at the Jefferson city council meeting Aug. 23. He plans to make similar presentations to the county supervisors and interested community groups.
More than 800 persons who work in Greene County responded to the survey, a large enough sample to provide statistically accurate information, Paxton said.
Conducting a survey among the Greene County workforce, rather than all residents of the county, allowed the study to focus on those who are most likely to need housing or change housing in the near future.
Survey results showed that the workforce, when compared to the total population of the county, is more likely to be married, have a dual-income household, have much higher overall household income, and have more people in the household. “All of these factors indicate a demand for larger homes or apartments, with more bedrooms,” Paxton said.
The median household income in Greene County is $42,000, but the median household income for the Greene County workforce is $53,000. “People keep saying that we need less expensive housing because the people coming to work here can’t afford a lot, but the study says otherwise,” Paxton said. “The study indicates there is available income for those families to afford higher home purchase prices and higher rent payments.”
Approximately one-fourth of the workforce does not live in Greene County. Paxton said that’s an indication of a potential housing problem and an opportunity if more housing options were available.
Paxton pulled out a smaller group from the survey, those he called “Lookers.” The Lookers – about 25 percent of the workforce – said they are currently looking for alternative housing, either to buy or rent. The Lookers, according to Paxton, are more familiar with the current housing situation than the total workforce. Among Lookers, 75 percent said the rental housing and apartment inventory in the county is “poor,” and almost half think the inventory of houses to buy is “poor.”
One-fourth of the Lookers are also looking outside Greene County. Eighty-seven percent said they’re looking outside the county because of a lack of quality housing, and 82 percent said there’s not enough quality homes/rentals in the county.
“If we continue with our current housing inventory we will not only maintain the 25 percent of our workforce living outside Greene County, but that percentage could increase as the Lookers continue their efforts to find alternative housing. The exodus, coupled with the current lack of housing inventory, will make it harder and harder for our businesses to attract new employees or replace employees that leave,” Paxton wrote in the survey summary.
“The typical Greene County employee has available household income and a need to provide housing for a lager family. These needs should be consistent for any employment growth we would experience in the next few years. That growth will be inhibited by a severely limited housing inventory and specific lack of housing units for larger families,” Paxton continued.
Paxton concluded that the results of the study show that it’s time to begin development of a comprehensive housing incentive plan designed to attract developers to the community to construct new lower to mid-priced homes, duplexes, and two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Members of the GCDC board also heard the high points of the study at their monthly meeting Tuesday. Board president Sid Jones said the next course of action is to share the survey results, and then to find solutions for the identified issues.
