The Housing Savannah task force is actively working on creating Savannah's first Housing Affordability Plan that includes several strategies for addressing Savannah's growing housing affordability crisis, and needs community feedback. 

The 40 task force members, including a community representative appointed by each city council member, spent months researching and discussing our city's various housing challenges. 

Here are some examples of what they found:

• Housing costs in Savannah have outpaced incomes by a rate of 2 to 1 over the past 30 years, and 21,400 or 40 percent of Savannah households cannot afford quality housing. 
• This means multiple-earner households making less than $50,000 annually, or $24 an hour full-time, are going to have a difficult time affording quality housing.
• Single-earner households making less than $35,000 annually, or $17 an hour full-time, are in the same boat.
• A single-earner household making $7.25 an hour minimum wage would have to work two and a half full-time jobs to afford a quality two-bedroom apartment.

The task force came up with five strategies and 40 action items to help address our city's housing challenges. You can learn more about their suggestions and take a short survey at savannahga.gov/HousingSavannah. 

Ultimately, the task force will present the plan to the city council to decide which initiatives to advance, but solving Savannah's housing challenges will take a community-wide effort. The plan gives everyone in our community the chance to see where they fit in and what they can do to help be part of the solution.