Community GIS Class Helps Map Evictions in Athens-Clarke County

If you’re out and about in Athens this weekend, you may see some familiar faces on the front page of today’s Athens Banner Herald! For the past several months, students in Dr. Jerry Shannon’s Community GIS class have been collaborating with the Athens Housing Advocacy Team (AHAT) and other community members in order to conduct a comprehensive analysis of ACC’s eviction data. The goal of the collaborative effort is to better understand our local housing crisis while also filling significant knowledge gaps through a close analysis of ACC’s data.

The data for this project was acquired in collaboration with the Athens Housing Advocacy Team (AHAT), a grassroots activist group organized to empower, educate, and advocate for working class tenets in Athens-Clarke County. Dr. Shannon’s Community Mapping Lab connected with AHAT through Geography Ph.D. student Jess Martinez and Geography M.A. student Vanessa Raditz, both AHAT members.

Students in Dr. Shannon’s Community GIS class poured over hundreds over jargon heavy court documents detailing evictions cases filed in Athens-Clarke County. Alongside other community members, the students then presented the details of their analysis at Athens-Clarke County Public Library earlier this month. Their findings detail specific patterns of housing issues in the county such as eviction hotspots and landlords who’ve made multiple eviction filings. The full results of the collaborative effort are now publicly accessible. "It's one thing to kind of know generally about evictions or a problem in the community," said Shannon. "It's another one to be able to see it on a map and see it described accurately." Read the full Athens Banner Herald Article here!