Workforce Housing is a Community Issue: Meet Tiffany Watson

Housing can feel like the one problem no small community can solve, especially when the town is growing, prices are climbing, and every public meeting feels personal. We sit down with Tiffany Watson, executive director of Gilmer County Family Connection in Ellijay, Georgia, to unpack how a local coalition took on workforce housing and stayed the course long enough to see 50 new apartments become real homes.

Tiffany walks us through the play-by-play: the steady drumbeat of calls from families who cannot find a long-term rental, the way short-term rentals reshaped the local housing stock, and the “everyone knows everyone” dynamics that make change feel risky. We get specific about what worked including building a cross-sector stakeholder table, applying to the University of Georgia’s Georgia Initiative for Community Housing (GICH), using a housing study and community survey to ground the work in data, and choosing language like “workforce housing” to reduce stigma and keep the conversation focused on local needs.

You’ll also hear the hard parts leaders rarely say out loud: getting shouted down at zoning meetings, facing misinformation, and deciding whether the stress is worth it. Tiffany shares what kept her going, how they educated the public with simple Q&A materials and civic group talks, and what success looks like now that the Overlook at Ellijay is opening with a leasing process built to follow fair housing rules while serving the local workforce.

If you care about housing affordability, rural community development, coalition leadership, and practical strategies that actually move the needle, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a fellow community leader, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway so more people can find the show.

Tiffany Watson – Bio

Tiffany Watson has deep roots in Ellijay, Georgia, and proudly calls the community home. She graduated from Gilmer High School and went on to earn her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Reinhardt University in 2002, graduating Cum Laude.

Tiffany serves as the Executive Director of Gilmer County Family Connection, where she works alongside community partners to support children and families across Gilmer County. Her work focuses on bringing people together, strengthening local resources, and helping families access the support they need. She is also involved in regional initiatives, including Building a Region of Resilience (BRR), supporting efforts that promote stability and resilience across the community.

In addition to her nonprofit leadership, Tiffany has served in various community and service roles. She became Treasurer of the Present Hope Ministry Board in 2014, supporting efforts that provide education and food to children in Haiti. Tiffany served as Board Chair of the Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce in 2023 and as Chair of the Georgia Apple Festival in 2024. She presently serves on the Gilmer County Department of Family and Children’s Services Board and has been actively involved in the Gilmer Initiative for Community Housing (GICH), where she serves as Chair, helping lead local efforts to expand housing opportunities and strengthen community development.

Tiffany considers her most important role to be that of a mother to her three sons. Her child’s health challenges led her to advocate for families of medically complex children, sharing a parent’s perspective at medical conferences and legislative meetings to highlight the impact of childhood illness on families.

Get in touch with Tiffnay: gilmerfc@outlook.com 

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Music by Zach Price: Zachpricet@gmail.com

Transcript

Why Housing Feels So Hard

Ann Price 0:44

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Community Possibilities. I'm Dr. Ann Price, and this is the show where I talk with community leaders who are doing the hard, hopeful work of making their community stronger. Today's conversation is really about what it takes to solve a problem that almost every community in the U.S. is struggling with right now. Housing. The kind of practical, roll up your sleeves work it takes to get people organized, change the minds, and actually move the needle in a small community where everyone knows everyone, and change can feel risky. That is what we're talking about today. My guest today knows that work firsthand. Tiffany Watson is the executive director of Gilmer County Family Connection, a community collaborative in Elligay beautiful, Georgia, where she was born, raised, and still proudly calls home. Through the collaborative, Tiffany works alongside community partners to connect families with resources, strengthen local systems, and tackle some of Gilmer County's toughest challenges. And one of these challenges the community has faced has been workforce housing. Tiffany has been at the center of the effort of doing something about it. And as chair of the Gilmer Initiative for Community Housing, she helped lead a multi-year process to get the community organized, just some long-held assumptions, and bring real housing solutions to life. Tiffany is also the mother of three sons, an experience that has shaped her advocacy in ways that she will tell us about today. I think you're going to love this conversation. You're going to love meeting my colleague and dare I say my friend Tiffany. She is an amazing coalition leader. So she's really going to tell us what community leadership really looks like when a problem is complicated, when the stakes are high. And people doing the work are neighbors. So let's get to it. I am so happy to have Tiffany Watson here today. So hey Tiffany, how are you? Hey Ann, it's so great to be here. Yeah. So Tiffany and I um have known each other. I was trying to think before I uh before I uh let you in the Zoom room. It's gotta have it, it has to be going on 10 years, maybe more. Whenever you took over as the coordinator.

Tiffany Watson 3:20

Yeah, well, that was actually in in 2020. So so it's been since I since I came on.

Ann Price 3:28

No, it feels like longer. No, I feel like I've known you for a million years.

Tiffany Watson 3:35

I know. I feel the same way. Once I started this work, um, you were you were someone who was always, you know, always part of the process. So I feel like I've known you for years as well. Oh my gosh.

Ann Price 3:48

That is so that's hilarious. All right. So the uh our our friends out there don't know even um how we're connected. We'll get to that in just a second. So hey everybody. Um so I invited Tiffany on because Tiffany is doing some really fabulous things in her county. Um, and right before we hit record, we were already chatting. We were talking about project management and well, I don't know, project management was not the right word, but just how we kind of manage our day. That was so we had a whole fun conversation before I even hit record. That's not why Tiffany's on the show. Tiffany has done some really uh difficult things in her county. Uh, so many things um in communities are they feel intractable. And Tiffany, you've made progress. But before we get into all of that, tell us who you are and how you came to be who you are.

Tiffany’s Story And Why She Leads

Tiffany Watson 4:41

Yeah, so so my name's Tiffany Watson, and I um, you know, I was thinking about this while I was prepping. You know, how did I get to where I am today with the work that I do? And um I'm a mom of three. Uh I have three boys. Um, my oldest is uh 17. He's gonna be a senior this year. We're about to do some college tours, and then um, I know, I know. And then and then I have uh my middle son, Jake. Uh he's 15, about to be 16. Uh, and my youngest son, Sam, is 12, about to be 13. And they do wrestling. So I'm in a really fun stage of my life uh right now. But you know, thinking back to how I got here, um, I really credit just the route I went with my life with with my parents. If I if I start there, there's three things I thought of. So my parents, you know how sometimes you you hear that kids should be seen, not heard. That's not something my parents really instilled with us. They they really felt like kids have a lot to offer. They have a lot of good insight, even as little children. And I can remember, you know, we we would keep up with current events and watch the news. And my dad liked to instill in us that there's a bigger world out there. So we would we would play games. I have a large family and a younger brother, and my dad would take dollar bills at the kitchen table and say, All right, go to the world map and find Bangladesh. You know, whoever gets it first gets the dollar or whatever. So those kind of things and just really being heard as a child and uh, you know, that our voice matters. Uh and my mom was always, you know, just how can you be the helper? How can you help at school? How can you help your friends? How can you help? I was really scared to go into kindergarten and very shy. And she found someone on the playground who she felt like maybe even more shy than me and said, go talk to them. So that's the kind of childhood I had with my parents. And I I really credit them a lot to who I am today. Um, and then if I fast forward to the future, um, my oldest son, Luke, had a lot of medical conditions when he was younger. Um, that could probably be a whole nother podcast. But just to just to give you just a little nutshell of what was going on, um, very early on, even from birth, I noticed he had some skin, skin issues, uh, just thought it was a little bit of eczema. It kind of snowballed over the years. Uh, and then when he was in elementary school, his skin became so bad it it all he almost looked like a burn victim. And uh doctors didn't know what to do. Um, we I we took him everywhere. And we were at um the children's hospital, and they said, You need to, you need to just go to your allergist and see it, what they recommend. So I finally had an allergist uh who sat down, pulled up a chair, and said, How open are you to different types of treatment? So that is how we landed ourselves um in uh New York with Dr. Lee, who does traditional Chinese medicine, integrative medicine. She's also a scientist. And so she was taking some of these kids who had really severe allergies, reactions to things, uh, skin issues. And whenever we got there, um, he was so severe she didn't have any kind of uh protocol for him, really. And so she created it on the spot after evaluating him, making sure he was stable enough because we had to carry him in. He was so bad at that point. And um, we were able to, she created the formula on the spot. We went to Chinatown and got the herbs. And without realizing it, we ended up um, because I documented everything because there was such rapid healing. We ended up without realizing it, creating a medical journal uh with his case in it. And uh she called the formula the Luke formula. So now there's kids around the world who um who use the Luke formula and are able to see the rapid healing results as well. And um, I became um, she would ask me to come to some medical conferences early on just to give the mother's take on, you know, kind of our journey and what happened, uh what happens in the family when you have a medically complex child. So he's doing great today, all of that work great. We still are in that community helping other other families. But I I look at that as thing number two that just gets you thinking that there's so much out there where you can help, you know. And I think the final thing would be my dear friend uh Deedra, um, Key, who I went to school with, she started a ministry in Haiti after the earthquake. Um, and I think it was in 2010. And I was just helping her stateside to um to just do some bookkeeping and treasure. And I traveled there in 2020, right before the pandemic, and just to see the people there and just the joy and but still the need and how you can do so little, but it can help so much. It kind of gave me it it brought me back to what can I do in my community? You know, what what can I do to make a difference? And when one of my mentors was retiring from family connection, she knew I was a stay-at-home mom at that point, you know. But if I was wanting to get back in the workforce, this may be the perfect way to do it. And so that's kind of what led me here to where I'm at right now. And I I really credit those three experiences to leading up to it.

Ann Price 10:21

Yeah, I love that. I love that insight. I I do. Um yeah, so let's talk about your work in um Gilmer County. And I've had the

Gilmer County’s Growth And Tension

Ann Price 10:31

privilege to um work with the mentor you're talking about and see you walk into this role and everything that you have um brought to this work. And um, Tiffany, in case I forget to tell you uh later, you are absolutely one of the best coordinators, community coordinators I have ever seen. You are really fabulous. And I think the world of you. So let me go ahead and take say that now, uh because I may forget later. But let's take everybody to um lovely Gilmer County, not too far from where I am. Can you paint a picture uh of the area for us?

Tiffany Watson 11:11

Yes. Um, and Ann, I appreciate that so much. That means a lot coming from you. Um, but yeah, Gilmer, Gilmer County is in North Georgia, and I feel like we live in a slice of heaven. So um we're probably about an hour and a half from Atlanta. Um, whenever you come in, you start to see, you know, the mountains. Um, it's a big touristy area now. Uh after the pandemic, when everything was kind of shut down, a lot of folks were just traveling, you know, just in their cars and and started traveling up in this direction and seeing the beauty here. Um and yeah, we there's a lot of uh you have the mountains, but then you also have some of the green space. And everybody who comes here, we just hosted a regional family connection event here, and uh everybody seemed to really enjoy it and just enjoy the beauty and the hospitality. Um, and yeah, we've become very much a tourist area, but really wanted to keep the integrity of, you know, just what Gilmer County is all about and the slower living. Um, so that's that's a little bit about Gilmer County.

Ann Price 12:18

Yeah, and uh for folks who have never been to North Georgia, so our North uh Georgia Mountains, it's kind of the it's really the beginning of Appalachia, right? The Appalachia Mountain. Um, and so it is just uh breathtakingly beautiful. There's apple orchards, oh yeah, yummy barbecue here and there.

Speaker 1 12:38

Yeah, apple orchards, barbecue. Um, there's wineries, a ton of wineries now. We're we're kind of coined the Napa of the South. So it's just beautiful live music and and the views. Um, and then of course, we are also the apple festival every October is held here as well.

Ann Price 12:55

Yeah, yeah. So the and the there's good and bad of being um discovered, right? So we're gonna which uh which brings us to our uh to our conversation today. But give us a sense of the work of the collaborative, tell us a little bit about uh Georgia Family Connection, some of the other projects that you have going. Um and I want to dig into the partnerships that you have in the community. So wherever you want to start in telling us about the collaborative and the work of the collaborative.

How Family Connection Builds Coalitions

Tiffany Watson 13:24

Yeah, so um just a quick little, you know, backstory of how Family Connection, my little elevator pitch uh came to be. Uh, Family Connection, there's a family connection every county in Georgia. It was started in the 90s by Governor Zell Miller with a vision of having one office that could kind of see what are the pressing needs of the community. And I think it's been really, really successful. Originally, it was to the graduation rate was really low, so it was to help increase that graduation rate and then also teen pregnancy. So, how do you stabilize those families? And also how do you not uh replicate work being done in your community? So uh so family connection is just a really great resource for any county in Georgia. Um, what we was the beauty of it is you're able to really see what are the pressing needs in your community. So you'll notice that every family connection looks a little bit different. And but every family connection is gonna focus on bringing partners to the table to hear them and see what the needs are. So uh every family connection holds a meeting every month to bring collaborative partners together. So, what that looks like is you're gonna bring people from different sectors to the table. So you're gonna have people from the nonprofit world, of course, volunteers, people from the business sector, and we have elected officials who come in, we've had judges come in, um, people from the school system, some of our biggest employers are all able to come and see what is working in the community, what work needs to be done. Um we also hold civic dinners to to kind of see what you know what needs to be focused on. So with Gilmer Family Connection, we saw a need that was rising for years and years uh to address the housing crisis. So housing, of course, it is not only a Gilmer County, you know, problem, but it's it's state and then also nationwide. So it's it's a big something big to tackle. So that was something we identified. Um we also do benevolence. So we we are able to get straight out there into the community with some benevolence, uh helping with Christmas, helping with food boxes. We also address uh the opioid crisis by you know working with folks and getting Narcan out there. Um and we put together an annual plan every year. So from year to year, it may vary a little bit depending on what kind of data we're getting. Uh, but that's been the focus for years is how can you bring that family stability to your community? And then how do you collectively, collaboratively do that?

Ann Price 16:08

Yeah, so I mentioned at the um the top that uh the reason why I wanted you on the podcast is because you guys have been able to have an impact in uh an intractable area, which is housing, right? So CES does a lot of work in uh rural communities uh and rural rural Georgia, for example, and we talk to a lot of people, and what we hear all the time is transportation, health care, and housing. Uh so uh I I uh was talking to Dr. Google before I hit record and you joined me. The average um home price in the US is $514,600. And of course, it depends on where you live, right? In Georgia, it's $334,465. And just for dollies, I looked up Gilmer County, $416, $130,000 or $416, uh, yeah, about $416,000. We'll just leave it at that, right? So not too far off the US average, but higher than Georgia's average. Um, of course, like I said, it just depends on where you live. If you live in, you know, Alpharetta 20 minutes from me, the average home price is like mid-700s, right? And in Gilmer County, you've got um uh working just working folks, right? They're your you're they're mechanics and they're working at your fast food restaurants and they're working in the school system. And then you have people's second homes, right? Vacation homes. So folks that only maybe come in for the weekend, or maybe they're renting out their homes. So that definitely impacts uh home prices.

Why Locals Cannot Find Rentals

Ann Price 17:55

So, how did you get to, or what first really uh clued the collaborative in, shall we say, in that housing was an issue and this was this was a problem that you all wanted to tackle?

Tiffany Watson 18:09

Yeah, well, um we saw from other leaders in the community um and some mentors of mine, uh, we started collaborating and just seeing we kept on getting the same phone calls about about housing, about people becoming homeless, and just not a lot of options out there for folks to be able to get into a long-term rental. So there used to be a lot more long-term where people have a lease for 12 months, can stay there for years and years. But what happened after you know, people kind of discovered us more is a lot of those homes went from long-term rentals into uh Airbnbs. So because people can make a lot more on the Airbnbs than than the long-term rentals. And so we just saw the housing stock going down and down and down. Um, same thing too, after 2008 with the housing crash, there just has not been enough building to keep up with the demand. So we also, you know, we have a lot of retirees here. Um, they're able to come up and just, you know, want to enjoy the mountains. Um there's a tax credit for them uh as well, which is an incentive. And we just started seeing that there was a lot of a lot of working people who really didn't have the chance that we did to maybe start out in an apartment and then a starter home and then, you know, buy a home. They were kind of getting forced out of their own, their own town. So, you know, you look at kids who are graduating, you know, the the kids who want to stay here, there wasn't really anything for them. Um, same uh because the the wait list for the apartments that were available were just so long. I mean, it could be like a hundred deep. And, you know, the same thing uh just for you know workers, you know, this has become such a touristy town, like I've said, uh, you know, where are those workers in the restaurants gonna live? Um and so you run into you know, people having to flee the area. And we didn't we knew we had to do something, even if it was small. And so that that's kind of what sparked the conversation. Um, and it it started with a small group and then went from there. Mm-hmm.

Ann Price 20:26

Yeah, and I want to talk about that because like I said, it you know, it's it feels so big. It feels like I can't do anything about it. So can you um kind of walk us through the steps that the small group kind of took to first understand the problem and then what are we gonna do

Forming The Housing Stakeholder Team

Ann Price 20:44

about it? Yeah, let's start there. And because it certainly wasn't easy. It was not a direct line to A, to yay, we have you know, workforce housing.

Tiffany Watson 20:55

Exactly. No, it it was a lot of um, I mean, just first, you know, getting the stakeholders together who who are passionate about housing as well and see the problem. So it it started out with who do we have buy-in from? Is this something our community even wants? So making sure we had people um from the joint development authority, uh, someone from the school system, someone from our lar largest employer, pilgrims. Um we had uh people from the business world, a nonprofit, I represented the nonprofit uh part of it, someone from water and sewer, because a lot of people don't realize that one of the pushbacks is oh my gosh, is this gonna be built all over Gilmer? Um, but a lot of people don't know you have to have uh public sewer and water, and you have to have the correct property for it. So, so really getting those people together and then saying, How are we gonna educate ourselves and be able to, you know, move forward? And so that that's kind of how we start. started and we started looking into something called GIC, the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing. You can apply for that and the training is put on by University of Georgia. And what it shows is what is working in housing throughout the the throughout Georgia and how can they help you get educated and learn how to bring that information back to your communities. So it took us two times of applying because we knew we couldn't do this on our own. We needed experts kind of holding our hand or showing us what to do. So after our second application we were accepted into the GIC program. And so we kind of coined our team we kept the same acronym instead of Georgia initiative for community housing, we were Gilmer Initiative for Community Housing. So that is kind of how our team formed initially I have a lot oh I have so many questions.

Ann Price 23:00

Who led those initial meet and meetings because these kinds of conversations are not it's not like it's not as easy as it might sound. We just invited all of these people from all of these different sectors and we all came together, right? Just probably getting them to the meeting was a challenge and then facilitating those conversations I'm really curious about that.

Tiffany Watson 23:23

Yeah it I feel like having someone who's really respected in your community. So I took on more of a leadership after a few years. We had someone from the Joint Development Authority who is very well known in the community. A lot of people know his work and his passion. And so when you have someone that people already respect and he's very articulate and being able to explain with the data of what is happening because people can feel it and they can see it. But they don't have like the hard facts. So uh he was the one who strategically got us together. And then it was just kind of the magic of having those people you know in the room and then moving forward. So you would have a core almost executive group who would do a lot of the trainings and bring that information back. And of course you have people fall off there there was roughly 20 people and so we've had some who have moved taken different positions but then you bring someone else in as well um so I hope that that maybe answers a little bit of that.

Ann Price 24:27

Okay. So it sounds like having that respected voice in the community who also knew all of the issues around housing yes was educated himself and then was able to educate us. Gotcha gotcha right so he had that trust probably sounds like you know some some charm that help that helped people bring in the room. Was it discouraging the first time you didn't get uh accepted for is is it proper to call gig a grant?

Tiffany Watson 24:55

Is would that be a proper term for I so what I I look at at GIC is we are kind of the researchers. So we are able to go get the see what's working, research and bring it back to our community. The only thing that GIC does which is actually extremely helpful is when say a builder comes in um we're going to be talking more about the LITEC building that we

Getting Into GICH And Learning Fast

Tiffany Watson 25:20

did they're able to get a tax credit um and when they apply for um these grants um being a gig community gives them a few points which can be very helpful on on you know getting getting that uh tax credit for them. Okay. Okay.

Ann Price 25:37

Awesome. But you didn't give up the first time when you applied is what I was getting at.

Tiffany Watson 25:43

Oh I'm sorry. No no so we we we applied year one and did not you know that did not go through and we just knew we were going to keep going. And so we were kind of doing our own research, you know, kind of figuring out you know were we going to do um you know any kind of surveys you know so we just kept on meeting planning researching on our own and then we really focused on that year two uh application to Gig so we had we made a video uh we had someone's husband who does that kind of thing so he was able to do some drone work and kind of show some of the housing uh and interview some of us so we really worked on what could that next application look like and hopefully we could get in.

Ann Price 26:28

Gotcha yeah so that's another yeah so that's another learning lesson you know don't give up um if you're trying to do something similar in your community um don't don't give up think about you know a a better way to tell your story right um yeah okay so you brought all these people together you were accepted to gig you definitely learned a lot uh let's talk about the the next like how did that develop into a strategy that you could then implement because it's it it's not okay and we're gonna build uh an apartment complex it's not that you're right so what were the what were the steps after that I think you know the first so after after that and kind of getting going and it was a couple different things we wanted to see first you know what what is the need in housing there's so many different routes you can go with it uh you know do you want something for senior housing uh you we can't really do exactly like the low low income housing that's more of a government thing but could we do workforce housing?

Tiffany Watson 27:40

Um you know are we looking at maybe some starter homes anyway what route are we going to take so we talked

Surveys Town Halls And Winning Support

Tiffany Watson 27:48

about that a lot um and then it was seeing does the community even want this you know we know we want this we know we see this but what does the community want? So from there we were able to work with um an organization to do a housing study um that they were able to really kind of get in there and research our area and come up with a survey so we were able to send out a survey to different employers made it available to you know to everyone to take that survey and see what they wanted. And so we were able to get that back and that helped with planning as well. And we also did a town hall meeting um and and what we do with that you know you and I have talked about this housing is very controversial and you know I always like to respect even though some of the people can be really loud in their disagreement of of what you're trying to do and it can almost overpower what the majority wants. So we wanted to hold a town hall meeting uh and we we wanted to everyone's voice to be able to be heard. So we were able to uh basically take some questions and people were able to get on their phones and answer questions about what they wanted to see in real time. So it would just populate on the screen in real time. And we saw that 90% of the people wanted something to happen in the workforce arena. And so that really helped us see that you know there is a want for it because I think that's what you have to see too. Is there a want? And with that kind of data you're also looking at you know who are the decision makers in your community sometimes you can get bogged down with commissioners um with you know everything that falls under zoning. And so it was really looking at two even looking forward of who who would like to run as we have three commissioners in Gilmer who would anybody like to run on a housing platform. And so during that time period we had uh two individuals who ran on a platform of housing and one um very very strong winds and so again that is more that we were able to see yes we we are going in the right direction let's keep on researching and let's keep on bringing ideas to the table.

Ann Price 30:12

Again I have so many questions. Were you and anybody in the group nervous about doing that town hall? You know you see on TV town halls you know run amok. Were you nervous at all about what that was going to be like I'm just asking because I would be nervous. I was especially nervous because they wanted me to uh kind of open it and close it uh and so we had the the folks who did the housing study they were the ones who put up the information um but we tried to keep it as basically just as I don't know just to where there wasn't a lot of room for an outburst um it was you know people were answering you know the questions on their phone it was populating and we had information they could they could get as they came in so it ended up I was very nervous about that about that one and it went well now there was other um zoning you know uh meetings that took place that were much more heated but but that initial one was went great gotcha gotcha uh what was the reaction in the room when uh people saw that I don't know what the exact percentage was you know 90% of the at least the folks responding to the survey in real time were were interested in in having workforce housing available did yeah could you could you see it did I mean I can just imagine people looking around like oh I'm not alone yeah yeah I I feel like it was it was a sigh of relief and it was something that we we felt like we already knew we knew that there was a lot of people who are wanting it but it was just nice to have have those numbers and and see that we were on the right track but it was definitely a sigh of relief um to look around and and know that most of the people are on board with this and you want to make sure you're doing it mindfully you still want to listen to the criticism and because normally there's a grain of truth and in a lot of the pushback um so still being being mindful of those folks who are pushing back as well.

Tiffany Watson 32:18

Oh my gosh so so wise and kind of so hard to do in this very you know polarized world that we're living in did you guys have um conversations about the words to use right so I'm being very careful about saying workforce housing as opposed to uh affordable housing did you guys did you guys talk about the language language is so important we really we really did talk about that a lot in the planning stages um because there is a stigma that comes with affordable housing you know uh just people that makes people even more nervous um but we knew we wanted to target those who are in the workforce those who are the servers those who are in entry level you know positions at the schools or bus drivers um so so workforce just it

The Overlook Opens And How Leasing Works

Tiffany Watson 33:12

that's what kind of stuck with us and of course we learned that too at some of the meetings and trainings we went to is to really think about the language you want to use.

Ann Price 33:20

Yeah it's so so important and it and I think it helps you know bring people along yes you know and kind of invite you know invites them in in a different way so oh so many lessons learned that you guys have had which is exactly why I wanted to have you on the show but I want to talk about the impact of the work and um where things are now we you mentioned that meeting and I was not able to come when you guys did your tour what what's going on in Gilbert now is a result of all this work that you all have done.

Tiffany Watson 33:52

You know it's it's really really exciting um the these apartments you can you can see them up on the hill and they they kind of blend into the background but they're they're really just every time I see it I just really think about all the work that has gone into making it happen. So we were able last week uh to do a tour and really see what has been created. So it's it's 50 apartments um it's called the Overlook at LAJ and they're in the process now of basically interviewing you know going through all the things they have to do for people to be able to move in. So I think they said that it's roughly at 75% capacity and they have a long list of folks they're working through but the first people who are going to start to move in will actually be the first part of July. So right around the 4th of July a little bit before a little after uh families are going to be able to start moving in and it's just really exciting when we toured it uh there's a really great uh community room that they'll be able to use there's there's an exercise room there's grills outside there's a nice play area so I feel like everything was really thoughtfully just you know thought about and building this the view is is really beautiful um and the prices are basically worked off of a formula where you look at the area the area medium income and you don't want to go above the 30% of what folks are making. So the rent is really reasonable um and you know nothing that you can find here in Gilmer right now a lot of you could find you know just a two bedroom going for 2,000. I mean it's just really really expensive. So just knowing that people are going to be able to have a safe place to live and I like to just think about it not only with these 50 you know units, but think about the generations to come. You know, what families who wouldn't have a chance to live in a in a nice location like that a really nice apartment they come with a washer and dryer uh just knowing the impact it's gonna have is just really exciting and it's one of the projects I'm most proud of. Mm-hmm.

Ann Price 36:13

It sounds beautiful. It just sounds gorgeous. Is there going to be like a management company? I'm very curious about that. How how is it going to be managed? How are the how what is the application process like?

Tiffany Watson 36:27

Can you speak a little bit so yeah this is something I think is important for people to know one of the I think one of the main um pushback for housing was are you going to build this and then just other folks are going to move in to these apartments and you're wanting to get your own you know your own people in there but you have to abide by fair housing laws and you you have to be fair about it. So we really wanted to go with a group that had a plan and had a good success rate. They have a success rate of storgia communities over um 90% of the own you know county getting into these apartments. So how it worked was when the Apple when everything went live there was a phone number that people could call into and we were able to really prep our community we were able to prep through the chamber sent it out biggest employers the school system saying on this date call this number and you'll get on a wait list. And once they start processing applications then they will process them in the order that they were received. So this started back several months ago where they started just collecting the numbers and then a few months ago they were able to start calling back those folks and going through the process. So uh they are meeting with a management company that is connected uh to the builders and they bring in the folks you know they they go through just their application process um verifying income background things like that um but we've had a really good success rate of having our own, you know, the goal was to have our own workforce in in those apartments. So we're also we're collecting that data because as we move forward we want to know you know did we succeed and what we are what we were trying to accomplish and this first project I feel like is very much your gut check on is this working? You know a lot of us are local um we love our community we want to keep it small we're just trying to solve a problem that is happening you know that we just saw happening with folks

Handling Backlash And Staying In It

Tiffany Watson 38:44

not being able to stay here and having to move elsewhere.

Ann Price 38:47

Yeah gotcha um let's see where do where should we go next um we talked about all the challenges well not all but some of the challenges that you guys faced we talked about the importance of words and having that community leader and making sure that you brought the community along and um of course having uh two county commissioners um who were supportive certainly did not hurt um we didn't use that term mental models but that's kind of what we're talking about when we switch the language from workforce housing you know from affordable housing to workforce housing um are there any other and by by mental models we're really talking about kind of those uh those assumptions or the beliefs that people have that that make it difficult to to change our communities are there any other kind of um mental models or learning lessons that we have not all taught that we have not already talked about that that we might want to bring up yeah you know I think there was a lot of mental models that we needed to address you know there's a lot there's a lot of stigma that is around housing um and just being able to educate people on what that looks like in our own communities I touched on briefly just letting people know that you know they weren't going to see this apartment pop up in their backyard.

Tiffany Watson 40:08

You have to have water sewer it has to be zoned properly um so there's there's actually very few spaces where you can build and typically it's it's in the town area. So just educating people on that we we ended up doing a QA just a one page sheet of the most common questions that we had which those were one of them and just we shared that out on social media we shared that out um you know just emailed out to different locations um we made sure to partner with the chamber there was also a group of us who went out and spoke in the community at different uh organizations so like even places like the Lions Club or you know just some of the little local civic groups being able to go out there and answer questions and educate people I think really really helped with that so smart so smart so how long um did this whole process take Tiffany yeah I was looking back it it's about it's been about five years um you know we we spent that first year kind of getting together making sure we had the right folks in place we submitted our GIC application and was denied initially working on that after um and then through the Git um training we were able to go to the University of Georgia to some of their conferences and that's where we we were able to really see what was working in other communities and we were able to see the builders and they did some QA. So we were able to work with a really great group that we met at the at one of those meetings and bring them back and we're able to do QA with our group um we interviewed other folks because remember we're not we we are not really making any decisions we're just researching and bringing this back to our community um and then from there you know the ball starts rolling so how would you say you've grown personally as a leader what what are you we've talked about learning lessons for the community and maybe um other communities that can learn from this example but what have you learned personally as a leader? Okay so I think one thing I have really learned uh because I would not just off the top call myself a leader but it just kind of happened so what what I learned was when when you're sitting at those tables when you're sitting in those groups it's just regular people having conversation you know about about the change they want to have and there's there's there's nothing I don't know I I I just realized that anyone can make change and so as as a leader just getting started I think is huge is you can talk about it just in circles over and over but just deciding you want to start I think I think was really really huge. And we had a group that was able to do that. After a couple years the leadership transition to myself um to becoming chair and when I remember initially when I was sitting in those meetings I thought oh my gosh I will never know as much as some of these some of these people know you know I I I can't believe I have a seat at the table having these conversations and then just realizing it just takes time it just takes research and then you too become well versed in something complicated like this. And the big thing is just to get started and just to trust yourself and um keep going. I think Anne you and I talked about this there was a there's many times our group wanted to quit um it is very controversial to bring housing into your area and you know you can get a lot of hate um we had a we had a uh meeting over zoning one time about a pop possible location it was lined out the door for people wanting to get in um and it was the builder and it was myself speaking and they could not get the crowd under control um we were yelled at we we you could even hear us you know during the meeting and we left there just totally defeated and just thinking oh my gosh do we even want to do this because that was just you have different locations you can try for this is one of the first ones we were trying for and it was funny because we were coming back from a conference that day and then coming to this meeting so we were we were coming in feeling really good about everything we've learned. I had my my speech of what I wanted you know what I wanted to say and and how I wanted to portray what we're trying to do and then to be shouted down like that and just the crowd not able to get under control and just feel so defeated. We took a little while after that and I was thinking I don't know for my family if I need to to keep keep you know keep going but we just took a breath and said you know what that was just one location we're just gonna keep on going you know wow and so after that you know then we had some leadership change in commission commissioners and whatnot. But yeah it was it it's it's really tough when you have that kind of pushback and I've I've been able to help other communities a little bit just have high level talks about it.

Ann Price 45:35

And my big thing is just to keep on going you know just keep on going try to block out the noise um but still be mindful you know I keep on going back to you want to listen to what they're saying and anything that you can bring into it um try to so we try to bring that mindfulness into our work as well um oh my gosh was that Tiffany was that before or after the meeting where you showed the data and most people were positive about it.

Tiffany Watson 46:04

Well that was after right because you'd you'd already gotten the message so you kind of knew that the as a whole but it sounds like in this particular area for whatever you were also talking about on the on the agenda for that I think we got an unlucky slot they were talking about the crypto mining data centers as well so we I feel like we were the red meat before the main the main course yeah the main course yeah brought out a lot of people who are very much against anything like that.

Ann Price 46:40

Um so yeah um so oh my gosh Tiffany I don't know I don't know if I'm that strong girl you are uh yeah I don't know I have such like admiration for you to face that kind of um you know we all just don't need to be that ugly right it's just what what we're talking about is providing homes for our brothers and sisters really who are at the bank you know when we need to you know go into the bank or serving our food or teaching our kids or driving our kids on a bus. We're really talking about our community members it's just I don't know it boggles my mind. You must be really good at breath work and you must have a tremendous prayer life is I'm I'm guessing I'm getting I'm guessing yeah it it's just a lot of just remembering why what is your reason for doing this.

Tiffany Watson 47:39

So you think back to when you were sitting around that table with other you know community partners and just remembering why you're doing this with the work I do, I work a lot hands-on with the community and just knowing all of the calls I get with people looking for housing and just not having any options and we also have an aging population where you have someone losing their spouse and not able to stay in their home with no options so just thinking about all of that and knowing that the reason you're doing it is to make the make Gilmar better and not to not to do anything but have good intentions. And I think a lot of times you know people can feel like oh there must be people don't volunteer to do stuff like this. They they can think that it's a corrupt organization or there's so many conspiracy theories happening now. You actually find that a little bit these big conspiracies coming out about the group who is working on it. And then in the world of AI we have memes come out about ourselves and where they're trying to attack us but just and also seeing the people who defend us and knowing there's good folks you know working on this some local people you also are able to see the other side of the people saying no you know this this is not right. This is not how you treat people we do want this in our community um yeah that's helped I guess awesome well I am so glad you finally said yes to coming on the podcast I knew this was going to be such

What Comes Next And How To Connect

Tiffany Watson 49:20

a great story let's let's take it back to the community as a whole what's your hope for the collaborative you know I really hope that we can continue to educate ourselves um now we're considered a GIC alumni but we're able to keep our certification every year to still be a GIC community which again if we go back that means if other projects happen it gives a couple points on the application which can be a game changer. So to continue to keep that certification um to kind of see what's coming down the pipeline on what is working in other communities um maybe besides just apartments you know are there other are there other ways we can help address you know housing at a different level here in Gilmer um you know it's just it's just very excited to keep on going and you could tackling something big like this has also made me think about another big issue that you brought up at the beginning and it's ruration. So I I have even thought it is there because I've met so many people through the housing and I met one individual who helped uh lead one of our groups who had helped on projects um with ruration so could we take that on could we see what we could do in role transportation because that's a very very um big issue here um you just with a lot of the folks I work with transportation is huge.

Ann Price 50:49

Yeah it absolutely is oh I can't wait to see what you guys do next. So um what you know a couple of pieces of pieces of advice might you give community leaders who are always who are also trying to make progress in these very difficult you know things that communities need.

Tiffany Watson 51:07

Yeah I would say don't be afraid to reach out to other communities who are doing doing things like this. So I always tell communities if you want to reach out to me for a phone call or any other gig community um you know we are so passionate about what we do we would love to just be be there so you don't have to reinvent the wheel so we can kind of show what we have done and how it can be duplicated. I even have spoken to Gabby who's one of your prior guests about doing a case study on you know what we've accomplished in Gilmer. So hopefully other folks can can start working on you know something as well or at least take that model and with whatever they're trying to do the work move it forward.

Ann Price 51:52

Right. Yeah I think that I think that's so important um and there's just such an opportunity for you know coaching and hand holding as communities do difficult work that they can be paired with another community that has done you know something similar or even something different just um to be support for each other. So I uh I think that's a great idea. So I so thank you again for joining me on the show. I'm so excited for everything that you have been able to accomplish in Gilmour County. So I have to ask you the uh the question I ask everybody is when you look to the future, what community possibilities do you see?

Tiffany Watson 52:32

I just see that you know we we don't have to be scared of taking on big challenges and that it is possible to bring thoughtful people to the table. And I'm really excited through my work with Family Connection, we're able to have the civic dinners and we're able to see what are people saying in the community that is pressing and just being able to take that feedback and then just turn that into action. I I've just seen that if you just get started on the work and you just educate yourself is really, really important you can move the work forward. So here in Gilmart I'm excited to you know just be able to help with like I said transportation but even on a smaller level um we recently put together we we saw that there's a lot of lower income families who aren't able to send their kids to summer camp. And so this was an idea that just formed with a few of us. I was on a selection committee for a small scholarship for 4-H students and we just saw the need and we're able to go to some of our places that are very have benevolence money and they want to do things to help the community. So now we're able to have a scholarship program for kids to be able to go to summer camp and the impact that can have and we're just able to send some wrestlers to the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and just knowing that you know if you take an idea and just don't leave it in that space but act on it I think that makes me most excited because I don't I don't know what else is going to come up that we're just gonna be able to act on and push forward. Yeah I love that well thank you again uh for coming on the show how can people get in touch with you and learn more about the work that you do or uh this housing work yeah absolutely um they can one thing they could do is to go to our uh Facebook page uh which is Gilmer Family Connection uh that is a good place they can also get with me just through email uh my email is Gilmer F C as in Family Connection at outlook.com um or yeah if they just want to reach out to me personally too they can always just give me a call.

Ann Price 54:53

All right well thank you again for uh coming on the show Tiffany this was so great talking to you. Thank you and I really appreciate it. Thanks so much for joining me today on community possibilities. I hope this conversation gave you something to think about and maybe even something to take back to your own coalition. If it did I have a free resource that might help. My coalition self-assessment tool is designed to help your coalition identify blind spots, get strategic about where you are headed and spark some honest conversation with your team and stakeholders it is a great starting point whether your coalition is just getting off the ground or has been at it for years. You can grab it free at Community Evaluation Solutions dot com Coalition Self Assessment Tool. I'll put the link in the show notes and if you found today's episode valuable please share it with a colleague or fellow community leader who could use some encouragement it really does help more people find the show and don't forget to like and subscribe until next time keep imagining the possibilities