Christian Home Apartments Groundbreaking Ceremony

CORDELE, Ga. – After more than half a decade of planning, the city of Cordele has broken ground on new housing with the goal of providing a home to those who work in agriculture.

Southwest Georgia United who is overseeing development of the housing says the project has been in the works since 2018.

“And, it has just been between COVID and other issues, it has taken forever to finally get the financing complete. We have just closed the financing yesterday, and we had the groundbreaking today. And, we plan to move forward and get this get this done as soon as possible, have it ready for people to move in,” said Robert Cooke, Exec. Dir., Southwest Georgia United.

And, in west Cordele, new housing on a largely empty plot of land like this is sorely needed.

Just ask Cordele Commissioner, Vesta Beal-Shepard who says this is a small step towards trying to lower the poverty rate in Cordele.

“…And, housing has always been an issue. Better housing and affordable housing is what we need in these smaller cities blighted property, we’re trying to improve our city. And, with Southwest Georgia United empowerment, we’re going to do these things. We’re headed forward. It’s been a progress and we are going forward. And, I thank them today for the groundbreaking, knowing that the future holds something better for Cordele,” said Vesta Beal-Shephard, Dist. 1 Commissioner, City of Cordele.

“We have a poverty rate in the county that is over 20% where the national rates are more like 12%. We have a in the city poverty rate over 30%, which is not uncommon at all in south Georgia,” said Cooke.

The properties are going to be opened up to those working in agricultural fields first and foremost.

And the city is working to make sure that more people have a place to call their own as they’re also trying to get rid of blighted properties.

“Wherever that we have somewhere affordable for them to live and presentable, Cordele has so much blighted property and that is a problem. But, we are working on it now. On west side with South Georgia United. We’ve got local realtors here working with us as well as the city itself,” said Shepherd.

Crews are immediately getting to work tearing down any blight on the property and they hope to have the project finished in the near future.

Shepard tells us the timeline for the project should roughly be between a year to a year and a half.

Brian Roche reporting.

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