Community Development

The City of Rome’s Community Development Department is committed to working with and for the community. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for our citizens through innovative programs in the areas of housing, economic development, and public facilities by partnering with federal and state funding sources to augment local public and private equity. The department houses the Rome-Floyd Landbank Authority, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, and other programs. The Landbank Authority is an asset to the community as it takes tax delinquent, blighted, and/or surplus properties and returns them to the community as an effective opportunity for affordable housing or rehabilitation. The CDBG Program is an important tool for allowing the City of Rome to tackle serious challenges facing the community and providing the means to improve the quality of life. Management of grant-funded projects and planning for future activities are very important duties of the Community Development Department.

The department’s primary responsibility lies in making applications for and administration of awards from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s CDBG Program and the Georgia Department of Community Affair’s Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP). These awards are made as grants to the city and then must be used for approved projects and activities that primarily benefit low- and moderate-income persons in our city. Activities fall into these general categories:

• Housing such as new construction, rehabilitation, etc. that are city-wide such as the CHIP homes that were built in South Rome and sold as affordable housing to eligible home buyers.  
• Public facilities such as the Boys & Girls Club in South Rome or the Kelsey-Aycock-Burrell Center in North Rome.
• Public infrastructures such as the street/drainage/or sidewalk improvements on Lyons Drive in West Rome and Maple Street in East Rome.