GEORGIA COUNTY INTERNSHIP SPOTLIGHT
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Alison Eltz Completes a Second GCIP Internship in Cherokee County
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When Alison Eltz completed her first internship with the Cherokee County Community Development Department in the summer of 2023, she found the experience transformative. It not only helped her gain new insights about her future career but also broadened her interests in policymaking and research. She returned for a second internship last summer, which was equally impactful for both Eltz and the county. Through her research on housing and investor-owned properties in Cherokee County, Eltz uncovered significant findings and developed a research model that can be utilized by other local governments.
In 2023, Eltz completed research on the existence and feasibility of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in the county. Her research helped develop a direction for the county’s approach to ADUs. She then went back to Georgia Tech, where she completed her second year studying public policy. Eltz returned to Cherokee County last summer, this time to conduct a housing stock analysis of single-family houses in the county. Eltz and her supervisor, Community Development Agency Director Brantley Day, were interested in compiling data on institutional investors in the county. They recognized that institutional investment in single-family homes is uniquely severe in the metro Atlanta area, and Eltz's research could clarify and fully understand the impact in Cherokee County.
To complete the housing stock analysis, Eltz took a multi-faceted approach to research. She researched institutional investors and investing practices and developed a methodology to identify institutional investors in Cherokee County. Eltz investigated the ownership of investor-owned homes, with a specific eye on single-family houses. She mapped the results and created various charts, spreadsheets, and other documents to display her findings and conclusions. This map displays the density of investment-owned single-family homes in each census tract within the county.
Through her analysis, Eltz identified 96,861 total single-family homes in Cherokee County. Of these, Eltz found that investment firms own 4,940 (5.1%). She concluded that this concentration of investor-owned housing stock is both higher than the national average and higher than other parts of metro Atlanta. Eltz’s research also identified the ten highest volume institutional investors in the county, as well as the spread of investor-owned housing across cities. Her conclusions predicted the potential for harm to the county housing stock: she recognized that institutional investors worsened housing affordability, created a burden on home ownership, and had the potential for questionable rental business practices.
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After completing the housing stock analysis, Eltz presented her research methods and findings to a variety of boards and stakeholders. She said her most significant success of the internship was presenting to the Board of Commissioners. “By presenting to the Board of Commissioners, I was able to raise awareness about the influence of institutional investor ownership, which was the intention of the housing stock analysis.” She also gave a presentation to the Cherokee County Planning Commission and the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce. In addition to her presentations, Eltz created documents and spreadsheets that detailed the housing stock analysis process to support potential replication by other local governments.
As this was Eltz’s second GCIP internship, she was able to deepen her understanding and familiarity with local government operations and county staff. “My favorite part of the internship was having the opportunity to learn about the different departments that make up a county government and how they interact with each other to produce the outcomes needed for the government to function,” she reflected. In addition to working alongside county staff, Eltz noted that the internship helped her improve her data analysis and research skills, which she intends to apply in her future career. She aspires to work as a policy or research analyst, and she is confident that the skills she developed during her internship will contribute to her success. As she completes her final semesters as a student, Eltz has a bright future ahead due to the skills she honed as an intern.
To learn more about the GCIP, please visit our website at www.accg.org/caf_index.php.
