City of Marietta providing affordable housing to city and school employees

The city of Marietta is providing affordable housing to city and school employees.

Empty lots in different sections of the city may not seem like much now, but soon they’ll mean everything to the men and women that serve the city of Marietta everyday.

“Find me another community where the mayor, city council and the entire city prioritized helping teachers live and work in their hometowns near their school,” said Grant Rivera who is the Superintendent of the Marietta City School District.

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Six affordable homes for city and school employees will be built on the lots.

“Everybody says we’d love to have teachers and first responders live in our neighborhood, but they don’t equate that with affordable housing and their need for affordable housing,” said Kelsey Thompson-White, who is the Marietta City Community Development Manager.

The city of Marietta donated the lots and will give $500,000 from ARPA funding for construction.

Volunteers with Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Atlanta will build each home.

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“We really went out of our way to do the ARPA funds and the COVID funds to do things that would benefit the community,” said Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin.

The application process begins next. Informational sessions will be held for city and school employees to understand how the program works.

“Habitats running the process like their normal process so they will look a gif they are qualified for a habitat mortgage that will weed out a lot of people,” Thompson-White said.

One and two-story homes will be built, the first one should be complete this summer.

“I am very proud of the way our City Council and staff have utilized funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to benefit our community and our residents who make our city such a wonderful place to live,” said Mayor Tumlin. “While the financial stress the pandemic created for governments and our citizens will take many months to recover, I believe our City has been good stewards of the ARPA funds by looking for innovative ways to help our community. The Marietta Public Service Housing Program is just one of the many ways we have sought to better our community through the use of these federal funds.”

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