Macon-Bibb to build affordable housing units in Pleasant Hill

Macon-Bibb County plans to build 64 new units of affordable housing at the former site of the Macon Charter Academy in Pleasant Hill.

County officials gathered outside the abandoned building to announce the new project, which Macon Housing Authority CEO Mike Austin said would cost roughly $18 million and be completed in approximately 12 to 14 months.

Mayor Lester Miller said the project will remove a blighted structure that has been vacant since before the COVID-19 pandemic and restore the area as a new “center for the community.”

“Stable housing stabilizes our lives and the lives of those around us,” he said. 

The project is funded in part by $1.35 million in state housing tax credits. 

A mockup shows plans for three new three-story buildings in place of the abandoned school building.

Units are income restricted. Austin said only people with a certain income level will be able to rent the apartments and in turn, the authority can only charge so much for rent.

“The rent can be very, very predictable, unlike the private market where it goes up and down, mostly up,” he said.

The county’s process for constructing the new affordable housing development started about a year ago, with identifying the site and applying for the tax credits. 

Erion Smith, chair of the Pleasant Hill Neighborhood association, said the new development helps rectify “past deeds of exploitation” against Pleasant Hill residents and helps the community combat gentrification.

He said he hopes the county continues to reach out to the community for feedback and keeps lines of communications open.

Virgil Watkins, District 8 commissioner, said between this new development and the Mount Homes — one of the MHA’s affordable family living sites — Pleasant Hill is developing “a long track record” in affordable housing.

Watkins, who taught as a paraprofessional at the school when it was running, said the development will add new amenities to a community that has been neglected in the past. He said officials are contemplating adding something like a food co-op to the multipurpose areas. 

“One of the things we were talking about was kind of making sure we honor the history of education on this spot, possibly with a library,” he said.

Austin said the authority anticipates a long waiting list for the complex, about a mix of 300 people from the neighborhood and outside of it.