Sunday Solutions — March 30, 2025
Good morning! We’re heading into the final week of the Georgia General Assembly, looking at why tiny houses for Glynn County’s homeless stand empty, how federal cuts in public health budgets affect us directly, and we recognize a soldier laid to rest 84 years after his death. Here we go!
NEWS: HOUSING
Empty houses sit while homeless numbers rise
People struggling to find regular housing in Glynn County are still wondering why so many of the tiny house spaces at Hand in Hand’s village remain empty. The Current’s Jabari Gibbs has been sorting through a maddening maze of official explanations and documents to try to explain it. On Wednesday, we published a look at all the barriers to giving people aid needed for shelter there. The challenges include shifting policy from the federal government, a hold on disbursing vouchers and higher costs for services clients require once they move in. And now, the Brunswick Housing Authority plans to add work requirements to all holding housing vouchers as well as raise the rent on those already in housing to cover costs. All of this adds up to more empty housing designed for those who have none.
Legislature barrels into Friday deadline
The Georgia General Assembly is rolling toward its annual end with a few practical bills: Funding the government, budgeting for education, raises for judges and setting up a process for compensating people who were wrongly imprisoned. There are other bills and substitute bills as well, and we’ve posted a boatload of stories about what’s been passed and what’s on the plate for the final week at this link. One story to note reports on the tough Senate committee debate on a bill that would designate a string of topics that all Georgia schools must not address under the guise of ridding classrooms of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The committee debate ran long and brought out fundamental perspectives from legislators centering on the racism in today’s world and how it manifests for them. The debate begs the questions: Does discussing a topic in a learning atmosphere like a public school equate to an endorsement by the state? And can or should the state officially define topics like racism and inclusion?
Oh wow. We made last week’s a bit too hard. No one sent in a correct answer to tell us it was the public art on the giant water tower on I-16 at Bryan County’s Hyundai Metaplant. The tower, with art designed by Savannah College of Art and Design students is one of the largest in North America with more than 2 million gallons of water. Let’s see how you do this week.
Test how well you spy details in Coastal Georgia. Give us the location of the item in the photo above. Some spots may be easier to identify than others; some will be tougher. We’ll collect correct answers each week and draw for a weekly winner.
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NEWS:GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
Mixed news as Hyundai ramps up
Wednesday, Hyundai Motor Group of North America celebrated its north Bryan County Metaplant with a grand opening party that served to put Coastal Georgia on the map as an electric vehicle manufacturing hub. In the afternoon, corporate officials took a break to answer questions from the media as word passed among the journalists that President Donald Trump was concurrently announcing 25% tariffs on auto imports. Amid inquiries about high numbers of workplace injuries during the project’s quick buildout, the levies added a tough economic note to end the day on. Visual journalist Justin Taylor took the tours of the plant along with editor in chief Margaret Coker. See Justin’s gallery from inside the sprawling auto plant and the celebration here.
NEWS: COMMUNITY
A sailor laid to rest
On Thursday, U.S. Navy Warrant Officer John Gaynor Connolly was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery — the Savannah native died Dec. 7, 1941, aboard the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor along with 428 others. Connolly was a career seaman and chief pay officer for the battleship. His remains were identified, finally, in the past year through a federal effort to match DNA to still-unidentified soldiers killed in battle. Here’s a look at Connolly and the history of the ship he served from WTOC.
EXPLAINER: PUBLIC HEALTH
☕ Your second cup: Cuts to health research, services
We’ll take a deep dive today into what some of the newly announced cuts for scientific research and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services may mean to us and our children’s health and well-being. First, we have a story from Georgia Public Broadcasting on the cuts to Georgia public health services — half of which are funded by your federal tax money. Then, we have this broader story from two scientists whose research is funded by the National Institute of Health where they describe the types of federally supplemented work they and many others do toward solving the medical riddles of cancer and chronic diseases, among other things.
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