Athens City Council acknowledged the rights of transgender individuals amongst others during Monday night’s meeting.
Transgender individuals and those who have served in the military are recognized as protected groups under the fair-housing agreement in Athens.
“There have been times when families of the military have been evicted from their homes,” said Donald Eager, a fair housing consultant. “This is unacceptable and we work to prevent this and other unfair housing practices.”
Two presentations were given to members of city council about developments in Athens’ public transportation and fair housing that will help increase the standard of living in Athens.
The city is part of several fair-housing programs, including the Community Development Bloc program, which helps provide funding to address inequalities in housing.
Eager, who is in contract with the city, works to make sure resources address housing issues.
“We help people in terms of getting repairs, evictions, finding money to help with rent and mortgage and helping landlords with policies to get good sound tenants,” Eager said.
It has been five years since the city has worked on fair housing and Eager is busy ensuring that any inequalities in housing in Athens are addressed.
The fair-housing program has a 24/7 hotline (1-800-850-0467) for questions where residents are encouraged to call for advice.
“For you, as council members, we serve as a resource for you to help with constituents,” Eager said. “The city is required that every citizen in the city has the right to live where they want to and can afford.”
Members of Athens Public Transit presented information about a revamping of the current program so that they can serve more of the community’s needs and needy.
Athens Public Transit’s first goal is to provide transportation for the developmentally disabled and secondly for those who need medical transportation.
Michael Lachman, the service manager for Athens Public Transit, has been working on a newly expanded website (www.athenstransit.org) that provides updates that the previous site could not and expanding the current route by purchasing three new vehicles and changing the route layout.
“There continues to be a very high demand in this area for bus service,” Lachman said. “There was a 15 percent growth in the number of riders from last year.”
Along with increased riders, Athens Public Transit said they received a 15 percent increase in funding from the state and federal governments.
There are talks of changing the Transit’s main bus point from the parking garage across from City Hall to the front of Baker Center so that their services can be more compatible with other public transportation services in Athens.
The Athens Public Transit also received $50,000 in grant funding to put a number of bus shelters throughout the city.
“We have some big ideas in the works,” Lachman said. “But we are by no means near the end of the tunnel.”
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