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Mayor says ARPA enabled investments tied to Linnentown memory and housing supports
Summary
Mayor Kelly Gertz told the ARPA highlight series that Athens-Clarke County used federal ARPA funds to support Linnentown-related projects, including the Black Future Center and targeted homeownership and repair assistance, citing federal flexibility where state law limited use of local funds.
Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Gertz said ARPA funds allowed the county to support reparative housing-related activities connected to the Linnentown neighborhood that would have been difficult to fund with local dollars alone.
“Because there are different legal strings around these federal American Rescue Plan Act funds, we were able to devote funds to the Black Future Center that's gonna be opening in the next couple of years as well as to down payment assistance and home repair, kind of in the name of Linnentown residents,” Gertz said.
Why it matters: Gertz framed the county's investment as an opportunity created by ARPA's federal rules. He said Georgia law constrained what the county could do with purely local funds for restitution related to eminent domain in the 1960s, but ARPA’s allowable uses provided a path for targeted investments connected to Linnentown.
Details from the interview: Gertz described engagement with the Memory and Justice team on Linnentown planning and memorialization. He noted the neighborhood’s history — including a 1960s eminent-domain action around Baxter Street that led to underpayment of homeowners — as the reason officials sought targeted assistance and community investments.
Projects cited by the mayor include the Black Future Center (a community facility the mayor said is planned to open in coming years), down-payment assistance and home repair funds earmarked to benefit Linnentown residents. The mayor did not provide specific dollar amounts for those line items in the interview.
Discussion vs. formal action: The mayor described how ARPA’s federal rules created flexibility for these uses; he did not cite a specific ordinance or commission vote during the interview. He said planning and funding decisions moved through retreats and public meetings before final votes, but the transcript did not include vote text or tally.
Ending: Gertz asked the public to use county reporting tools and public meetings to track project progress. “If you go to accgov.com/arpa, you can see the funds that we've spent,” he said, pointing residents to project-level reporting.
