Warner Robins needs more affordable housing. Here’s how local leaders are trying to fix that

Warner Robins officials recently met with various home developers to encourage more collaboration and development of affordable housing in the area.

The city expects population growth to continue as local employers bring an influx of new workers.

City officials are calling home builders to build more single-family homes with affordability in mind.

Earlier this month, they hosted a “lunch and learn” meeting with 27 single-family home developers to provide information about the city’s building process, give resources on collaborating with the city and encourage more communication on the topic.

“We highlighted what’s called a planned district,” said Kate Hogan, community and economic development director with the city. “It’s an opportunity for us to have a more creative approach with some different zoning classifications, to hopefully encourage builders to create maybe a smaller footprint for a home or a smaller lot size in order to increase the affordability and attainability for local residents.

“I’m hoping that builders will feel comfortable to reach out to my office or planning and zoning and have those conversations. We’re here as a support in order to help builders navigate through city processes and procedures.”

Warner Robins expects to process about 500 single-family building permits by the end of this year and complete about 1,500 from now through 2025.

“By the end of 2025, we expect about 4,200 multi-family units to be built within the city limits of Warner Robins.” Hogan said “So we’re about to see a 54% increase in total available units on our market for multi-family apartment dwelling … We would like to see increased single-family homes in order to keep up with market demand.”

The city also hopes expanding single-family home availability will allow more residents to become homeowners.

Hogan said that in 2010, 60% of Warner Robins residents were homeowners and 40% were renters, but in 2020, 50% were homeowners and 50% were renters.

“Homeownership has a lot of tangible benefits to our community like providing some neighborhood stabilization and creating some intergenerational wealth,” she said.

According to Hogan, the city needs one new housing unit for every two new jobs created.

“We have a significant amount of growth in our community with industrial partners like Jack Link’s, and also continuing to support the missions on base,” Hogan said. “We’ve got a robust workforce, so trying to create new opportunities for housing is really important.”