Nyanza Smith is counting her blessings this Thanksgiving.
Her daughter Nianna is thriving as a sophomore at the University of West Georgia, where she is on a scholarship and studying to be a neonatology nurse.
Younger daughter Tanesha, 17, is an academically gifted junior at Winder-Barrow High School and a much-appreciated volunteer at the Boys & Girls Club of Winder/Barrow County, where she tutors other children.
Also near the top of Smith’s list of blessings is simply having a place to live in Winder.
“I thank God for not being on the street,” said the resident of the Glenwood Terrace public housing complex. “It has been a real blessing to be in Winder.
“When I first moved into the neighborhood, I thought, ‘Oh, Lord, what am I doing here?’ But it has changed so much.”
Smith credits the turnaround to a combination of prayer, the assistance of Winder police officers and the arrival last year of Winder Housing Authority director Michelle Yawn.
“When she came on board, she really made changes, and it’s making where we live beautiful,” Smith said. “She was the person who stepped out and did what she promised.”
Over the past year, Yawn has utilized about $676,000 in federal stimulus funds to replace roofs not only at Glenwood Terrace, but also at Hardigree Terrace, Dunaway Massey Braselton, and Dunaway Massey Statham. The agency also replaced all 50 kitchens at Smith Heights.
In addition, Yawn has worked since last November with Mayor Chip Thompson and a team of other local leaders on an initiative to rehabilitate four aging neighborhoods adjacent to downtown.
The effort is part of the Georgia Initiative for Community Housing, and Winder officials have taken advantage of state training along with the technical expertise of Northeast Georgia Regional Commission planners who have been developing a housing study for the city.
Earlier this month the local GICH team and regional planners hosted a community meeting at White Oak Springs Baptist Church to get input from residents about their neighborhoods’ needs.
Hasco Craver IV, the regional commission’s program manager for local government services, led the meeting and, with some humor and friendly nudging, elicited comments and ideas from participants who were polled one at a time. The residents said their neighborhoods’ primary need is for improved public safety, which has become an issue because of roaming youths with little to do outside of school and the availability of vacant, dilapidated dwellings that are being used as drug houses. The residents said they would like a stronger police presence, better street lighting, and either the demolition or rehabilitation of the houses. They also said their neighborhoods need more city services such as sewer, storm water improvements, sidewalks and public transportation.
Smith, who now serves on the housing authority’s residents’ advisory board, said she liked what she saw and heard at the meeting.
“It was a great meeting, because they are trying to help our community to be a better community,” she said. “It let people know ‘we do care about how you live and where you are living.’ “I saw people I had never seen before, and I heard what the change is that they hope will happen in the city of Winder.”
At the end of the meeting a dozen or so people signed up to work with the GICH team.
“I wanted to let them know that I not only need help but I want to be a part of what you are doing for our community and the city of Winder,” Smith said.
Everyone who signed up will soon receive invitations to the GICH team’s next meeting on Dec. 20, Yawn said.
“Hasco is going to have the results from the meeting and from the housing study, and he is going to make a presentation to the entire committee,” she said.
“We will have a week to give him our comments on his study, then it goes to the city council the first of January. Once the council approves it, we will be able to get the ball rolling and start making things happen.”
Winder is the first local municipality to participate in the GICH program. Auburn officials were notified this week that their city will participate starting in early 2011. The assistance provided through the state program is primarily technical, but the housing study and plan generated during the three-year initiative should be helpful in obtaining grant funding.
GICH is a collaborative effort of the Housing and Demographics Research Center at the University of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and the Georgia Municipal Association.
