For as long as Congressional Candidate Wayne Johnson can remember, there has been ongoing debate about the shortage of affordable housing in Georgia and nationally.
“I think every midsize or large city has debated how to build more affordable housing units for decades,” said Johnson, who has extensive experience in constructing homes and neighborhoods during his 40 years in the private sector. “It’s time to stop talking and start solving the problem for Macon, Columbus, Albany and 30 counties that make up the 2nd Congressional District.”
Johnson is working hard to unseat 32-year incumbent, liberal Congressman Sanford Bishop in the November General Election. Johnson believes the voters in Macon, Columbus, Albany and the 30 counties that make up the 2nd Congressional District have come to realize that Bishop is out of touch with the people
who elected him 16 times, and that now change will be good by retiring Bishop.
“We can build affordable housing that costs the homeowner no more than $1,000 a month that comes with three bedrooms and two baths,” said Johnson.
Johnson said the primary reason rents are going through the roof is because the cost of homes is even higher. Major corporations are buying up homes “like they are popcorn,” he said. Johnson said major
corporations have each bought 200,000 homes or more over the past decade. He said the housing shortage is due to a simple strategy of the corporations and their property management groups accumulating homes as a source of recurring revenue that will last for decades, and the corporations will then have an asset that
grows more valuable over time.
“I get calls every week from corporations wanting to buy homes that I own,” said Johnson.
Johnsons says homebuilders need to be given Federal loans with zero-interest loan for construction, but the loan would come with a 50-year deed restriction that says the home can only be sold to another,
individual homeowner.
“People will say you cannot do that, but the fact is that there are homes near Mercer University in Macon, where an agency of the city is permitting dilapidated homes to be given to homebuilders to tear down and then be rebuilt with new affordable houses, but these sales are contingent on the deed restriction,” said Johnson.
Johnson said that both the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Department can fund the loans. He said if you give a builder a zero-interest loan with no upfront equity required, then housing construction will skyrocket. He said cities such as Albany, Macon and
Columbus have many properties for such a plan.
Johnson said the Federal government can make the direct loans while the cities donate the property. He said the greatest asset a new home can have is access to water and sewer, and he believes the State of Georgia can solve that problem through grants to the city to fund whatever infrastructure needs that are related to the properties. He said each one acre should accommodate 4 to 6 detached housing units in “cluster pockets.”
“If you are building a home today, you will have the cost of construction, the lot and the builder’s costs that will drive the total home cost to $150,000,” said Johnson. “You give the homeowner a $150,000 loan at 5% on an extended timeframe of 40 years, then the monthly payment would be $725. Add on $200 for insurance and taxes, and you have a new homeowner who is paying about $1,000 a month for affordable, nice
housing.”
Johnson said his type of housing program will allow renters who are destined to be renters their entire lives to have a path to home ownership.
“Corporations that rent homes are sucking the wealth out of people, and my program would blow past the rentals and provide home ownership to people who are stuck in a never-ending rental merry-go-round,” said Johnson.