Twenty-four-year-old Soledad Chavez, her husband and three children live in a 1972 single-wide trailer with a roof that leaks. The family bought the trailer, which sits on two acres of land outside Ellijay, close to two years ago for $28,000. Recently, Chavez was able to pay off the note on her home with a $15,000 interest-free loan from her sister. She's committed to paying off the loan in two years and hopes to buy a newer home and rent the trailer to another family.

   Chavez's housing situation is just an example of the information uncovered by a comprehensive study conducted by the FACS Housing and Demographic Research Center. The study is the first in the state to document Georgia's current housing situation, housing options that are available, and what needs to be done to ensure that appropriate housing is available - both for the lowest paid workers and middle managers.

Researchers in the Workforce Housing Study include (left to right) Karen Tinsley, Dr. Anne Sweaney, Dr. Tom Rodgers, Janet Valente, Dr. Brenda Cude, and Dr. Jorge Atiles. Not pictured are Dr. Gladys Shelton and Dr. Doug Bachtel.

   "Common sense might tell you that if you have a job and you have money then you can find housing," says Dr. Tom Rodgers, Associate Dean for Public Service and Outreach, "but that's not necessarily true. What we found, particularly in rural areas, was a shortage of rental properties, of single-family starter homes for sale, and of land available for building. All of which can impact whether a company chooses to build in a particular location.

   "The bottom line," Rodgers continues, "is that much of Georgia's workforce has to settle for inadequate housing because too few housing options are available."

   The study was funded by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and grew out of interest by Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor to bring more jobs into the state's rural, economically depressed areas. "By focusing on the housing infrastructure found in rural Georgia, we're demonstrating the importance of affordable housing both as an economic development issue and as a quality of life issue," Taylor says.

   The first half of the 100-plus page report is an extensive data analysis regarding housing and population trends in Georgia. "As a state, we do not have any system to collect housing data on an on-going basis," says Dr. Brenda Cude, department head of HACE and a member of the HDRC. "Because an adequate supply of housing is essential to the future of Georgia's economy, we hope this study will be the first of an on-going effort to collect housing information and provide it to decision makers at the city, county and state levels."

   Dr. Doug Bachtel, professor of Housing and Con-sumer Economics, oversaw much of the data analysis, which drew on information from a wide variety of sources, including the U.S. Census, the Georgia Department of Revenue and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, the manufactured housing industry, and city and county officials.

   "This study reinforced the critical need for rental units in rural areas," says Dr. Anne Sweaney, HACE professor. "If you're a new teacher almost anywhere in rural Georgia, you're going to have a difficult time finding an apartment to rent."

   The final report also includes results from 12 town hall meetings held in representative communities throughout Georgia; a web-based survey of members of the Georgia Economic Development Association; case studies of three industries that have either located or expanded their sites in rural Georgia in the past five years; and a series of "success stories" regarding housing.

   "Data collected by agencies like the Census Bureau are at least a year old when they become available," says Karen Tinsley, project manager of the study. "That information is essential to understanding trends, but we also wanted to include first-hand accounts of what people see happening in their communities."

   For example, those attending the town hall meetings included local government officials, representatives of the Chambers of Commerce, builders, bankers and the general public. The survey of economic developers focused on the impact of housing on economic development. The case studies, which included formal surveys of hourly employees as well as informal interviews with executives, provided an even closer snapshot of how housing issues have affected employees in three companies.

   The information gathered in the case studies covers the gamut from a company that's concerned about its largely uneducated Latino workforce being taken advantage of by unscrupulous landlords and home sellers, to a company whose executives refuse to live in the area because of poor schools and low property values. In some cases, employees would like to live near their workplace, but there's no land to purchase. In others, the increasing salaries of employees are allowing them to leave government-subsidized housing for manufactured homes they can afford to buy.

   "It's important to recognize that in each of the case studies we found a culture that wanted to enhance the housing of its employees and wanted to be good citizens in the community," Rodgers says. "But in some cases, there are impediments that are working against those goals."

   A final step in the HDRC study is a collection of "success stories" in the area of workforce housing. "We want to provide possible solutions to the problems we found," says Janet Valente, HDRC educational program specialist. "Some of those solutions already exist and we want to be sure that everyone who sees this study knows about them."

   For example, Mercer University and the city of Macon are combining private and public resources in a major redevelopment project that will encourage homeownership in inner-city neighborhoods. Likewise, a neighborhood in the town of Martinez demonstrates how manufactured housing can provide a positive benefit for a community. "This community is designed with sidewalks and nice yards and all the things you would find in any well-planned neighborhood," Valente says. "The homes are both single-wides and double-wides. Some of the homes are older, but they're in excellent condition, which dispels the myth that as manufactured housing ages it falls apart. These homes have been maintained, just like site-built homes must be repaired as they age."

   Other solutions suggested by the HDRC team include government support to encourage developers to build homes and apartments in rural areas, and developing consumer education programs to help employees decide if they're ready to buy a home, what they should look for in a home, and how to maintain a home.

   "This study pulls together the good, the bad and the ugly of workforce housing outside the Atlanta area," says Rodgers. "By recognizing what's missing in a community and by studying the success stories that are out there, we hope rural leaders will draw on these findings and make the necessary changes that will allow them to successfully attract new industries and thus enhance their communities."