Born and Stayed - Imagining Affordable Housing

By Tom Kohler

Sept. 28, 2025 – I call myself a born and stayed Savannahian, having lived here for 71 of my 73 years. These days I mostly get invited to talk about how things ‘usta’ be. And let’s be honest, ‘usta’ is a great Savannah word. So let’s climb aboard the “USTA machine” and look at affordable housing….

Housing, Housing, Housing… Everywhere I go people are talking about housing. When I talk with folks I grew up with, I usually hear the Boomer Boast “It’s hard to believe what my house is worth now!” When I talk with my Millennial friends, the conversation goes more like this: “I can’t find any place to rent for less than…… ” or “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to buy a house”.

I’ve boiled down the extensive information that Laura Lane McKinnon, Executive Director of Housing Savannah, graciously shared. Nitpick with me, not her, please.

There are 300,000 people living in Chatham County with 40,000 people living below the poverty line. Chatham is currently short 10,000 units of housing and is projected to be roughly 17,000 units short by 2030. All surrounding counties are on the same trajectory with different numbers. So, scarcity on the supply side, and when you take a broadbrush look, here’s what you see on the demand side.

Median Sale Price $370,000 house in Chatham County
Income for Affordability $210,000 yearly income to carry mortgage
Median Income $70,000 Median Income in Chatham County
Affordability Gap $160,000

So, bluntly put, not enough available housing stock, and for many people, not enough money to afford what is here.

I don’t have a lot of answers, but here are a couple of examples of how people in Savannah usta figure things out, including affordable housing.

When it comes to private development of affordable homeownership opportunities, Feiler Park has stood the test of time. As did this man, Ed Feiler Jr. who passed away in 2021.

In my early years I called Ed “Mr. Feiler” as both of our families were active members of Mickve Israel Temple. In later years I managed to refer to him as Ed and was pleased that he treated me like an actual grown up instead of the goofy kid I usta be at Sunday school.

**Photo of “A Professional Savannahian” My Life in Stories, Edwin J. Feiler**

If you are a fan of how Savannah ‘usta’ be, pick up a copy of Ed Feiler’s recent book ‘A Professional Savannahian My Life In Stories.’ It’s a fascinating lens to view Savannah through and Chapter 34 details the development of Feiler Park.

Here’s a quick look at how this soon to be 80-year-old affordable housing effort evolved over time.

Edwin J. Feiler Sr. began developing Feiler Terrace in 1946. Mr. Feiler’s son, Edwin Jr. was 11 at the time, old enough, it turns out, to have caught the real estate bug. In 1959, after college and serving in the Navy, Ed Jr. returned to Savannah and the family business, Metro Developers. Gradually, the company built 1,000 affordable single-family homes.

These small cinder block homes (located West of Montgomery Street between 52nd and 60th streets) were designed to be affordable by allowing the buyer to do much of the finish work themselves. Metro held the mortgages as well, an important part of the project, as Black folks were not well treated by local banks.

I spent a couple of hours in Fieler Park last week, snapping photos and talking with several people, some working in their yards, others sweeping their driveways or tending to their cars. I was struck with how much every person I spoke with knew about the history of and life in their neighborhood. It felt like the way things usta be when families often lived multi-generationally with deep ties to neighbors.

One of the 1,000 affordable single-family homes built by Metro Developers Inc. in Savannah (photo from Feiler book)

Notice the cinder block wall on the side of this home and the newer, brick facade on the front of the home. Individual owners improved their homes as they were able to afford to.

Different strokes for different folks and it’s all good.

This started out as a compact cinder block house.

Here’s how the Rev. Dr. Betty M. Jones, the 30-year president of the Feiler Park Neighborhood Association told the story in 2016: “Mr. Feiler and Mrs. Feiler were visionaries with the purpose of helping African American families to be homeowners. I am grateful because I was able to grow up in a wonderful home and subdivision. I am not the only one, because there are others who grew up in this area and continue to have wonderful memories of the closeness we experienced in Feiler Park”

Bottom Line – 1,000 single family homes, built and financed at a time when the playing field for those who would be buying them was very uneven.

There was a moment in the ’70s when Slow-vanna’s very own Savannah Landmark Rehabilitation Project Inc. was touted nationally and internationally as a cutting edge public private partnership.

Here’s a little background.

Savannah, north of Victory Drive was changed by several post-World War II events. One was the civil rights movement – the sit-ins and marches of the ’50s and ’60s were downtown. Another was “white flight” and suburbanization. Main streets (think Broughton) shriveled up across the country as suburbanization took hold partly thanks to the GI Bill providing (primarily white) veterans loans to build new houses.

For example, my family moved from the Waters, 37th Street area, to Varn Drive, just off of Habersham, the first street South of DeRenne Avenue. My parents didn’t name it and claim it, but we were part of this ‘white flight’, with a 3% VA mortgage and three public schools – Heard, Wilder, Jenkins – all built to accommodate the shifting and growing population.

What we now call the Historic District and the Victorian District shifted toward low priced rental. Large, expensive to maintain wooden Victorian houses owned by real estate investors and slumlords were being rented to poor people. The housing stock was decaying. Not a good situation for anyone except the slumlords.

Founded in 1955, the Historic Savannah Foundation began pushing back on seeing these historic houses neglected, abandoned, and torn down and began encouraging people of means to become ‘pioneers’ in the preservation and restoration movement.

Things really started picking up in the ’70s, with the establishment of the Georgia Trust and the 1973 Federal Historic Tax Credit, which turbo charged restoration.

In the mid ’70s preservationist Lee Adler hit upon and started working on the idea of being able to renovate these large wooden houses without displacing the residents. He gathered a group of local business, faith, and neighborhood leaders and raised money locally and nationally to purchase and rehabilitate over 400 housing units. City Councilwoman Carol Bell’s husband Joe, then with Carver State Bank, played an important role, as did the Ford Foundation, federal funds from HUD, and support from the National Endowment of the Arts. Much of the work was done by using “CETA workers” thru the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act.

Adler’s personal relationship with folks like Georgia Governor/U.S. President Jimmy Carter helped with all of this, as did his ability to go head to head, toe to toe with Savannah’s highly respected and often stubborn city manager Don Mendonza.

The effort was not perfect. Nothing is. The articles listed below get into the good, the bad and the ugly of it all depending on one’s perspective:

In 1982, the National Historic Trust Preservation bestowed their highest honor, the Crowninshield Award on Lee Alder, primarily, but not exclusively for his work with Savannah Landmark. Adler also traveled extensively as a guest speaker regarding the work of the Savannah Landmark Rehabilitation Project, including being invited to meet and share the story with the Queen of England.

Corner of Habersham and Park. These units were newly built as part of Savannah Landmark’s 400 rental units.

Corner of Henry and Lincoln Streets. Renovated by Savannah Landmark in the early 1980s.

Unfortunately this organization was not able to stand the test of time, having to sell off its assets and dissolve in response to President Ronald Reagan’s gutting of the Section 8 rental assistance program.

I recently found out that a friend, Opollo Johnson grew up in a “Landmark house”.

Check out this cute guy who lived in this Landmark House at 443B (Middle Unit)

443 B Price Street is where Opollo lived growing up.

And here we have a much older and more well-dressed Opollo.

Opollo’s mother was recognized for her work in housing advocacy by President Jimmy Carter when he and First Lady Roselyn Carter toured Savannah Landmark.

Bottom line, hundreds of families benefited from stable, good quality, affordable housing and remained in the neighborhoods they considered their ‘home’ for many years. So, there was a time when sleepy little old Savannah was a thought and action leader in the world of affordable housing. Imagine that. Imagine reclaiming the title?????? Imagine….

About the author

Tom Kohler has lived in Savannah for 71 of his 73 years. He attended our local public schools, Armstrong and the University of Georgia. He was educated at Jim Collins Bar. The founder and longtime coordinator of Chatham Savannah Citizen Advocacy has been involved in creating a variety of civic organizations thru the years including the Jim Collins Bar Alumni Association, Savannah Rocks!, and Emergent Savannah.

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