An economic analysis by University of Georgia professors estimates residents of Linnentown are owed upwards of $5 million in reparations.
The study assessed the financial loss from urban renewal in Linnentown, a Black community displaced in the ’60s to create student housing. The preliminary calculations come after the mayor’s office assembled an economic analysis team at the request of the Athens Justice & Memory Project.
Jerry Shannon, an associate professor in the Department of Geography and the Department of Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics, presented the report last week to the Athens Justice & Memory Project.
“I think it’s important to note at the outset that our research is not meant to cover all forms of loss,” Shannon said.
Through the analysis, it became clear researchers would not be able to effectively capture impacts on employment or education due to displacement, he said. Nor did they have the expertise to create a measure of the emotional trauma that comes from forced displacement.
State law also currently prohibits any state agency from giving funds to private individuals. But members of the Athens Justice & Memory Project, a resident-led effort to address the history and impact of urban renewal in Athens, discussed requesting funds to address a variety of projects or efforts like affordable housing.
“I know last year there were some requests made, one of which was honored in last year’s budget,” Mariah Parker, an Athens-Clarke County commissioner and member of the Justice & Memory Project, said. “That may be a next step that others would like to see just to understand what do we have the money to do.”
To measure the loss, researchers focused on two measures: underpayment and lost appreciation.
Two methods were used to review underpayment. First, researchers reviewed the amount of what homeowners received for their properties and how it compared to what a fair price would’ve been. To do this, Shannon said, they reviewed recent home sales in the neighborhood surrounding where Linnentown once was to estimate the price of what the properties would be today. Researchers estimated a loss of $4,027,789 using this method, according to the report.
Second, they compared the records of property owners in Linnentown to those in the neighborhood north of Baxter Street, which was predominantly white. Shannon said they reviewed how home prices of Linnentown homeowners compared to those of residents north of Baxter Street. This method estimated a loss of $3,062,842 for Linnentown residents, according to the report.
“Those are two ways to assess underpayment,” Shannon said. “We did those as a kind of triangulation to be able to get a sense of what both these measures tell us, do they line up, and are they in the same ballpark.”
Lost appreciation, the second measure, reviewed how the displacement of Linnentown homeowners to areas with lower rates of appreciation impacted them. This measure estimated a loss of $994,586 for Linnentown residents.
“If your property appreciates 10 percent in one neighborhood and only 5 percent in another one there is a gap there of what you gain,” Shannon said. “And so we wanted to try to assess that from the records as best we could.”
Using the first estimate of underpayment alongside this measure of lost appreciation totaled an estimated financial loss of $5,022,375 for Linnentown residents.
