Atlanta hosts affordable housing week and kicks off new permitting processes

The City of Atlanta hosted its inaugural “Affordable Housing Week”, which started on Monday Feb. 12 and ran until Friday Feb. 16. It comes at a time when affordable housing is a quickly rising concern for many residents.

Affordable Housing Week also began the Welcome H.O.M.E. (Housing Opportunity Moves for Everyone) process, a new initiative for affordable housing in Atlanta.

“This work we started last October and continue to push forward this week ensures that housing remains accessible for the elderly, low-income families, and ultimately anyone who wishes to live in the City of Atlanta,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens in a video from 11Alive.

The Welcome H.O.M.E. process includes two Atlanta Housing paths: Conventional Path or Entitlement Path which are detailed in slides prepared by the city. A workflow chart below describes the two pathways.

Throughout the week, projects which met outlined criteria were reviewed and consulted by dedicated staff out of the City of Atlanta. The week also saw a number of workshops and presentations for anyone involved in building affordable housing.

The city’s official Affordable Housing Tracker shows that over 4,000 affordable housing units have been delivered — inhabited or currently leasing — since 2022, with another 5,000 under construction or funded at the time this article was written. 

Atlanta uses a metric for affordable housing set by the HUD for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell area. The metric allows for affordable units to be accessible “with an annual income of up to 120 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) for homeownership units – or up to 80 percent of AMI for rental units.” The AMI for the Metro Atlanta area was $86,200 in 2021 according to Invest Atlanta.

Some housing advocates argue using an 80 percent AMI index for affordable rental units is too high. A 1 person unit at 80 percent AMI for a Multifamily Tax Subsidy Project in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell Metro is $48,300. A comprehensive table for the Atlanta Metro area can be found here.