Baldwin County renters have united to create an organization known as the Baldwin County Listening Project (BCLP) that aims to open discussion about unsafe housing conditions and unfair rental practices from their own personal experiences.
The group hosted a meeting on the steps of Milledgeville City Hall Oct. 28 to report on a survey of nearly 300 residents titled “Holding On To Home: Voices of the Unaddressed Housing Crisis of Baldwin County.”
The Baldwin County Listening Project was created in 2024 after a group of residents began meeting to discuss the issues affecting both Milledgeville and Baldwin County.
“The city knew it. The city ignored it. Locals are struggling because of it. Affordable housing is not a luxury. Milledgeville can either act now or continue selling itself to the highest bidder while the people who make this city run are forced out,” the survey report states. “This is why we started the Baldwin County Listening Project. A space for locals to collaborate and make it harder for the city to ignore the voices of its people.”
According to a report, the survey was conducted by going door-to-door and hosting an online survey from May to August. Over 1,000 doors were knocked on and 294 in-depth surveys were conducted. The key findings reported were that rent is rising even for “affordable and marketrate housing,” landlords are “failing tenants’ health and well-being,” renters face discrimination for not being college students, renters are offered limited options and living out of motels, and the “housing crisis is not new.”
“The city commissioned its own independent study of the housing crisis in Milledgeville in 2019, which highlighted many of the same results as this report. Our data provides a deeper look into the findings from the City of Milledgeville's 2019 independent study on housing. Within this report are the results from the community survey process, as well as 24 first-hand accounts of renters impacted by skyrocketing rent and neglectful landlords, and 13 communities developed demands to address these problems,” states the report.
“While 99% of renters agreed that all residents deserve access to safe and affordable housing, 74% said that they had struggled to find it in Baldwin County. Almost half of respondents (48%) said that they had to choose between paying rent and paying for another basic need,” the report’s introduction summarizes.
The Baldwin Bulletin reached out to City Manager Hank Griffeth but was unable to obtain the 2019 report referenced before the deadline.
Jason Taunton is a member of the Listening Project and helped to conduct the surveys. As a renter himself, he became involved with the group in August.
“We mainly surveyed multidwelling and multifamily housing and apartment buildings to inquire what renting conditions were like, how they felt about where they lived, the percentage of their income spent on rent, if they have any difficulties with landlords or maintenance of where they live, and more,” said Taunton. “We left the questions open-ended so the participant could tell us their experience.”
The survey discusses the results of the 2019 independent study on housing conducted by the city, shares personal anecdotes from renters, provides insight into rental costs and increases, and offers visuals from repairs not completed to housing objects that caused risk of injury and more. The survey also has two dedicated sections to “The College Town Doom” and “Motel Living,” highlighting how residents have been unable to find housing or were “pushed out” of the city/county due to favor of college student housing or the rising cost of renting.
“The biggest issue I was told while surveying was cost,” said Taunton.
“I surveyed a lot of senior living and fixed income households. Many expressed having to choose between necessities and paying rent” In its conclusion, the survey lists a Renters’ Bill of Rights that the group aims to have adopted. The group also aims for the city/county to: pass a Transparency & Accountability Ordinance that requires committees and boards to provide regular reports and release budget information to the public, adopt International Property Maintenance Code Interior Standards that authorizes code enforcement officers to issue citations to landlords for code violations upon substandard rental properties, require that landlords who rent multifamily residential properties with four or more units to have a renters license, hear commitment to enforcing HB 404 Safe at Home Act, support and implement a public legal assistance fund for low-income renters, create and maintain a local public landlord registry, use the Housing & Urban Development’s definition of affordability to build homes, open and fund homeless shelters, repeal the statewide ban on rent control, and update landlord-tenant laws to “hold landlords accountable when landlords do not provide a safe and livable environment for tenants.”
“The Baldwin County Listening Project attended the last month’s city council and board of commissioners’ meetings to express some of the common concerns from this survey. We also emailed questions to every candidate prior to the election and shared a ‘report card’ summarizing their stances that were passed out,” said Taunton. “We plan to continue having discussions with local officials to achieve these goals and we invite other community members to attend our meetings and share their voice.”
To learn more about the Baldwin County Listening Project, visit its Facebook page or Link Tree at linktr.ee/Baldwin-CountyListeningProject.