Rural Georgia’s path to prosperity runs through housing. That idea framed a conversation with three mayors during the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s Rural Prosperity Summit on October 1 at UGA’s Tifton campus.
Moderated by Daniela Perry, executive director of the Georgia Chamber Foundation, the session, “Foundations for Growth: Tackling the Rural Housing Shortage,” centered on a simple premise: rural economies can’t grow without places for workers to live. The mayors agreed and shared how they’re changing rules, rebuilding trust, and piecing together financing to add the homes their residents can afford.
The Missing Middle in Fitzgerald
For Fitzgerald, the pressure point is the “missing middle.” “We have a good supply of lower-income and subsidized housing, but it’s that middle workforce housing that we struggle with,” said Mayor Jason Holt. “Housing values in our community have tripled since they were pre-COVID… it’s very high.”
With an older housing stock, much of it historic, upkeep costs push properties into rental and, too often, into code issues. “One of the biggest community issues is fear… they fear the traffic, they fear the taxes, they fear who we’re attracting to our community,” Holt said. “We on a daily basis communicate and educate.”
Pembroke’s Post-Hyundai Reality
Pembroke Mayor Tifanny Ziegler framed her city’s story as “pre-Hyundai and post-Hyundai.” Before the massive auto plant landed nearby, the one-stoplight town already wrestled with scarce housing and infrastructure limits. “We had to get creative on water and wastewater before we could even talk housing,” she said, describing how the city secured a new well in a neighboring county and lined old pipes while under a consent order.
Then came Hyundai’s announcement. “Suddenly Hyundai’s announced… you’ve just changed the complete dynamic of the community,” Ziegler said. “The per-capita income in Pembroke is $27,000. Hyundai’s bringing jobs that are at $58,000.”
Blakely’s Clean-Up-First Strategy
In Blakely, Mayor Travis Wimbush is steering through the loss of a major employer. “Our mind is shifting to recovery from losing one of the largest employers,” he said. Progress in Blakely began not with a shovel, but with a broom. “Before you can get new growth in, you have to clean up.”
Blakely launched community cleanups and began aligning ordinances with what residents actually want, a much needed reset according to Wimbush. “You have to have the ability to say, this is why we're going in this direction,” Wimbush said.
Programs, Partnerships, and Pushback
All three mayors credited the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH) as a catalyst. Blakely “learned how we become marketable to developers,” Wimbush said. Pembroke took a 30-person cross-sector team through GICH, which Ziegler credits with unlocking deals once thought impossible: a $10 million Low-Income Housing Tax Credit project, followed by a $13 million senior development and new-construction grants. “As a small community with a $4 million budget, never would we have had that kind of investment had we not had those partners in place,” she said.
Fitzgerald leaned into redevelopment, addressing more than 700 blighted or burned-out properties and partnering with private builders to rebuild. The city and county recently adopted a Georgia Tech housing study into their comprehensive plan, which Holt praised for spotlighting what not to build. “They showed us the kind of housing we didn’t need to try to put in our community.”
Partnerships, the mayors said, make or break these projects. Holt urged mayors to court local banks and employers. Two industrial partners in Fitzgerald have purchased and rehabilitated multifamily properties to house workers. Ziegler keeps skeptics close. “Put the naysayers on the board,” she said. “Sometimes I have to turn Facebook off,” stressing that studies let officials decide with data, not emotion.
Blakely is creating a foundation for future development: hiring staff, reestablishing authorities, and inviting critics into the process. “It’s no longer fun to resist because I’m giving them information first,” Wimbush said.
Planning for Growth and the Next Generation
Employers now expect housing in the recruitment package. “Now more than ever, housing is part of the discussion in job-creation projects,” Holt said. Ziegler warned against the “chicken-or-egg” trap: “You can’t afford…all these types of infrastructure when you don't know if you're gonna attract a business or not,” she said, adding that cities can prepare, update plans, and set standards in order to be ready.
Looking ahead, the to-do list is both technical and cultural. Ziegler championed “rip off and replicate” approach—borrow model ordinances from cities already seeing growth. Holt wants rural-specific funding tools and flexibility to convert vacant historic buildings. Wimbush argued for quarterly policy reviews ,and if a policy isn’t effective, make a change.
To keep young people in rural Georgia, the mayors said housing must match how younger residents actually live. Holt urged openness to “tiny house communities” and modular homes. Ziegler involves the city’s youth council in stakeholder meetings, asking “ what's gonna draw them back to our community?” The answer, she said, isn’t always a backyard. “My son’s 21… he doesn’t want to cut grass.”
A Simple Playbook
Daniela Perry, executive director of the Georgia Chamber Foundation, said access to housing has become one of the most pressing challenges facing rural Georgia, impacting workforce growth, community stability, and long-term prosperity.
“That’s why the Georgia Chamber Foundation convened this conversation with three rural municipal leaders tackling the housing shortage head-on in their own communities at our Rural Prosperity Summit,” Perry said. “By continuing to enable these critical conversations, the Georgia Chamber Foundation is sharing the insights and solutions that will equip leaders to effectively implement tailored strategies and help Georgia remain a beacon of economic success and prosperity for the next 25 years and beyond.”
In the end, the formula sounded straightforward: clean up, plan together, change your rules, and use every partner—banks, developers, and state agencies—to turn one visible win into the next. As Holt put it, “It’s about education…letting your community understand what their needs are going to be for the years to come.”