Author Archives: Sean Keenan

The anticipated demolition of the southside’s long-neglected Forest Cove apartments will force the neighboring elementary school to shutter as families are uprooted to make way for its redevelopment. Children living at the Section 8 community make up the majority of Thomasville Heights Elementary School’s student body. But the 211 households that remain at the 396-unit complex will soon be […]

Tenants at the fast-deteriorating Forest Cove apartment complex soon may be able to rest their heads in comfort and safety. City of Atlanta officials have identified 170 units available in other apartment complexes, which would be enough to temporarily house most of the 211 families still living at Forest Cove, Mayor Andre Dickens announced at […]

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced an initiative Wednesday  that could produce 1,000 affordable homes on land owned by churches, mosques, and synagogues over the next five years. The new endeavor — part of nonprofit developer Enterprise Community Partners’ Faith-Based Development Initiative — is projected to deliver 1,000 rental and for-sale units across 52 acres of land owned […]

Forest Cove tenants kicked off a rent strike Tuesday morning, just hours before Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens unveiled a plan for the city to help relocate the remaining families from the dilapidated Section 8 complex, which has been condemned by an Atlanta judge. And in a move that stunned residents and activists, the property owner, Millennia […]

Lawmakers must crack down on the exploitative practices of Wall Street investor landlords if there’s to be any hope for housing affordability in metro Atlanta, experts told Atlanta Civic Circle this week. These so-called “institutional landlords” accounted for more than 40% of the single-family home purchases in the Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and Roswell area in the third quarter of […]

Atlanta Housing (AH) has nearly freed itself from a years-long legal entanglement with Integral Group and its development partners. The housing authority’s board of commissioners on Wednesday approved a settlement deal that spells out how 88 acres of valuable, publicly owned land can be developed. The move, which still must be approved by the U.S. Department of […]

By Maria Saporta and Sean Keenan In an unexpected twist, Atlanta Housing (AH) will push the long-awaited redevelopment of the former Bowen Homes public housing site to the back burner “until a later date,” the agency’s CEO, Eugene Jones, told Atlanta Civic Circle on Wednesday. “Hopefully before the end of the year,” he added. Asked why AH was delaying […]

The Atlanta Housing (AH) board of commissioners was set to consider potential master developers for the former Bowen Homes public housing site at a specially called meeting Thursday. The public housing agency needs a master developer for Bowen in place to apply for a grant worth up to $50 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and […]

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has brokered a deal that’s expected to end years of costly legal drama between the city’s housing authority and developer Integral Group over development rights to 81 acres of Atlanta Housing-owned land. Dickens announced the deal at an unexpected press conference Thursday morning, just as the legal battle between Atlanta Housing […]

After purchasing the dilapidated Forest Cove apartments on the Southside last April, Millennia Housing Management announced plans to invest over $56 million to rehabilitate them. But an Atlanta judge has condemned the property as a public nuisance and crime magnet, ordering its demolition and the swift relocation of its tenants, Atlanta Civic Circle has learned. Millennia officials told Atlanta Civic Circle just last week that […]

After sitting idle for nearly 13 years, the sprawling Westside site that once housed the Bowen Homes public housing project could actually get a new lease on life. At a specially called meeting Feb. 2, the Atlanta Housing (AH) board of commissioners could finally select a master developer for the revitalization of the 74-acre property, […]

The Atlanta City Council last month approved a measure that paves the way for the city’s public defender office to help prevent evictions, but without proper funding, it’s not enough to prevent the displacement of many city residents affected by the pandemic. The ordinance, authored by City Councilmember Michael Julian Bond, authorizes the Atlanta Public Defender’s […]

Residents of the Southside’s long-neglected Forest Cove apartments will continue living in ramshackle conditions until the property owner can secure financing for the complex’s desperately needed revival. Millennia Housing Management, the national real estate firm that previously managed the property, purchased the “uninhabitable” 396-unit complex in April from Global Ministries Foundation after years of deterioration and neglect. Millennia plans […]

The resurrection of the long-dormant Atlanta Civic Center might finally be on the horizon, as the deadline for developers to submit overhaul proposals rapidly approaches. Once property owner Atlanta Housing’s (AH) board of commissioners sifts through the submissions, due Jan. 28, they will invite developers with the best pitches for the 19-acre, Old Fourth Ward site to […]

Georgia renters and housing activists rallied outside the Buckhead home of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) commissioner on Saturday to call foul on what they consider a dysfunctional emergency rental assistance (ERA) program. For months, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) has decried the DCA’s handling of the hundreds of millions of rental […]

With one of his first pen strokes as Atlanta’s new mayor, Andre Dickens refreshed an executive order from Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration that bars landlords managing city-funded properties from evicting renters. The order, enacted at the beginning of the pandemic, effects a temporary eviction moratorium for residential properties funded by Atlanta Housing, Atlanta Beltline, Inc., the Fulton […]

A year after City of Atlanta leaders launched a $100 million housing opportunity bond program, an extra-governmental commission of planning and development experts this week teased the idea of scaling the program up to as much as $250 million. In January 2021, the Atlanta City Council approved then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ executive order to issue $50 million […]

The federal government has given the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) the go-ahead to turn over more than $80 million in unspent emergency rental assistance (ERA) funds to higher performing metro-Atlanta governments. The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday approved the DCA’s petition to hand over $80.6 million in unspent funds from the $552.3 million it received one year […]

The creation of Buckhead City could deal a devastating blow to housing affordability across Atlanta and make living in the posh neighborhood even more inaccessible, experts told Atlanta Civic Circle. Supporters of the exodus effort say that’s nonsense. Although the controversial prospect of Buckhead seceding from the City of Atlanta hinges on a series of state […]