Toccoa Code Enforcement Sees Increase in Dilapidated Living Conditions

The City of Toccoa’s code enforcement division is finding itself in the unique position of helping some citizens get into better or safer housing.

At their planning session earlier this month, the Toccoa City Commission heard from City Clerk Fredda Wheeler.

Wheeler said while the City’s code enforcement officers conduct routine inspections of homes and businesses, increasingly they are coming across people living in housing that is not safe or sanitary.

“We’re finding more and more that we’re becoming involved with the living conditions of people in these houses,” she said. “We have a relationship with Adult Protective Services and a lot of times we’re finding people that are living in conditions that no one should have to live in.”

Wheeler said whenever it is determined that a house is not habitable, the person living there must be removed, even if it’s temporary.

However, Toccoa Mayor Gail Fry says when those situations arise, the resident is not just immediately forced to move out.

“We don’t just go over there and throw somebody out,” Fry explained. “We contact Angie and we ask if they have an emergency shelter. And if she doesn’t, she usually does within a couple of days and she calls us. We just don’t say, ‘You can’t live here.’  We contact Adult Protective Services and we always make sure that we have somebody that will fund it. It’s $50 for two weeks to stay there. It’s not like they’re just thrown out into the street with no resources.”

Wheeler said some of the people they’ve worked with are able to find temporary or permanent housing with the Toccoa-Stephens County Housing Authority or senior apartments such as, Imperial Place on Rose Lane, while others are able to move in with family members until their homes are fixed and cleaned up.