SAVANNAH, Ga. — Families who live in Yamacraw Village will have a path back to the site once it is rebuilt, under an agreement that the Yamacraw Resident Council and the Housing Authority of Savannah announced Thursday in a joint release.
The housing authority committed to building at least 100 income-based homes with federal subsidies on the property near downtown. Households that still qualify under the authority’s rules and federal HUD standards when the new buildings open will be able to move back.
Before that happens, every household now living there must move out. The authority said it will pay for moving costs, security and utility deposits and transportation, and each family will be paired with a relocation specialist to help find a new place and line up services.
Several key details were left out of the announcement. It gave no timeline for relocation or construction, did not say where families would go, did not give a total count of homes planned for the redeveloped land and offered no update on whether HUD has signed off on demolition. The authority sent its demolition request to HUD in 2025.
Shana Williams, treasurer of the resident council, said the group has been focused all along on making sure Yamacraw families can come home to a safe place. Executive Director Evette Hester said the families there deserve dignity and fairness throughout the process. The council, which residents elect, will get progress reports from the authority every six months and plans to track whether promises are kept.
Yamacraw Village opened in 1941 as segregated housing for Black residents and ranks among the oldest federally funded public housing complexes in the country, with 315 apartments on about 22 acres. It replaced Old Yamacraw, a neighborhood where an estimated 3,000 people were displaced. The authority voted to tear the complex down in June 2020, and a 2023 review put needed repairs at $51 million, up from $40 million in a 2019 study.
Filed under: Savannah GA Neighborhood News
