In November of 2020, Athens Area Habitat for Humanity in partnership with Lydia’s Place opened a unique new “dorm” for area college students, a set of two-bedroom apartments in central Athens called Lydia’s Homeplace. These subsidized apartments were created specially for young adults coming from a background of homelessness, mostly coming up through the foster care system, who have earned acceptance into area colleges and universities.
In 2025, this partnership is expanding upon that initial project with the development of Lydia’s Second Home, a set of two-bedroom bungalows distributed within the Micah’s Creek neighborhood on Athens’ east side. Fewer than 4 in 100 former foster kids will ever earn a college degree. Lydia’s Homeplace and the Second Home houses are here to help local youth beat those odds.
The Micah’s Creek neighborhood is located on the Firefly Trail, just a few blocks from the downtown transit hub. Second Home bungalows will be interspersed with single-family homes and a few tiny homes as part of a culturally blended community housing neighbors from various walks of life. Lydia’s Place will provide subsidies for the cost of housing, as well as on-site supervision and other services to the students.
Special thanks go out to Governor Brian Kemp’s Office of Planning and Budget which has approved grant funding for this project, without which we would not have been able to provide new housing at this scale for these hard-working students. We’re happy to share the governor’s belief that both housing and education are fundamental to personal independence and achievement and fulfillment as well to our community’s general wellbeing and sustainability.
We’ll add more as this project takes shape, and we hope it’s not the final project in our partnership with Lydia’s Place.