Bastrop County Collaborative for Housing and Health to host workshop series

The Bastrop County Collaborative for Housing and Health will host a series of community workshops to help design a vision for healthy, safe and affordable housing.

The details

Architects and project managers, in addition to BCCHH, will be in attendance.

”As we're starting to see a lot of our rural neighborhoods, ranches and farms start to disappear with new housing developments, we need to ask, ‘How do we as a county start thinking about healthy, safe and affordable homes for those who are here in the county and who want to stay within Bastrop County?'” Donna Nichols, Bastrop Public Health Department director, told Community Impact. “This is the first opportunity that I know of that we’ve actually asked that question.”

There will be three two-hour workshops:

• 1-3 p.m. Aug. 23 at the Elgin Civic Center, 404 N. Main St., Elgin
• 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Aug. 26 at the Smithville Recreation Center, 106 Royston St., Smithville
• 5-7 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Bastrop County Community Center, 15 American Legion Drive, Bastrop

Although the workshops are free and open to the public, an RSVP is required, as each is limited to 50 participants. Spanish translation will be available, according to officials.

“It’s really important, from our standpoint, that we stay community driven and convene the community at every opportunity,” Nichols said. “We want to have their input into decision-making.”

A report—which will go into the hands of potential developers, local officials, nonprofit organizations and the public—will be completed in the following weeks and posted to the Bastrop County website.

“We don’t ask and walk away,” Nichols said. “We ask and then provide, because this is about designing a community that we want to live in, and being mindful of how that community improves health.”

Also of note

BCCHH was established through a grant the St. David’s Foundation awarded the Bastrop County Public Health Department in January, and includes leadership from 13 nonprofit organizations, Bastrop County and the cities of Bastrop, Elgin and Smithville.

“Everybody deserves a place to call home,” Nichols said. “So we just need to be smart about how we think about this and make sure that we don’t leave our county residents behind as the influx of new growth comes.”