House committee advances ‘Better Georgia Without Blight’ bill to help cities, counties rehabilitate properties

Representative Larry, speaking to a House committee, introduced HP 753, the "Better Georgia Without Blight Act," saying the bill would authorize the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to provide technical assistance and pursue outside grants to help cities and counties remediate blighted properties and convert them into housing.

"According to OCJ in chapter 8 section 4, subsection 8, that is an urbanized or developed property that has met these 2 or more conditions: uninhabitable, unsafe or abandoned, inadequate provisions of ventilation, light, and or sanitation, and there's an imminent harm to life or other property," Representative Larry said, citing the legal definition he used to estimate the statewide scope of the problem.

The sponsor said those criteria produce an estimated 582,000 blighted properties statewide and cited…