Author Archives: Sean Keenan

Fulton County has processed more than 80% of requests for emergency rental assistance (ERA) since the beginning of August, in stark contrast to the pace at which the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has dealt with its own ERA applications. Between Aug. 2 and Dec. 12, Fulton adjudicated 10,287 of the 12,771 applications submitted by households […]

The desperately needed restoration of the Forest Cove apartment complex could finally be on the horizon, project officials say. For years, residents of the Southside Atlanta community have complained of pests, mold, trash, and crime that have made the property virtually “uninhabitable.” On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Forest Cove’s owner and manager Millennia Housing Management (MHM) told Atlanta Civic Circle that the […]

While the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) wades through its backlog of roughly 33,000 emergency rental assistance (ERA) applications, the state agency is denying nearly as many applicants as it’s approving. As of early December, the DCA had received nearly 50,000 applications for federal rental aid. It had processed just over 16,000 of them—less […]

When Atlanta’s new mayor and city council are sworn in next month, they’ll have a network of public offices at their disposal that are equipped to develop affordable housing. Will they make the most of these tools to create a more welcoming and equitable city? The city’s public housing authority, Atlanta Housing, is charged with developing […]

The City of Atlanta has picked a team to develop a mixed-use complex that includes 186 affordable housing units across the street from City Hall, according to the city’s planning commissioner, Tim Keane. Officials tapped Vecino Group Southeast and the nonprofit Capitol Hill Neighborhood Development Corporation to spearhead the buildout of a 0.86-acre site at 104 Trinity Avenue that’s owned […]

Atlanta Mayor-elect Andre Dickens will need to get creative in identifying new funding sources for affordable housing, since existing channels aren’t enough to make a serious dent in the city’s affordability crisis, says one local housing and development expert. “[Dickens] needs to secure a regular annual funding stream for affordable housing, on the order of […]

Though the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has recently stepped up the pace in disbursing its first round of federal rental assistance money, most of the state’s local governments are far outpacing it in getting aid to those who need it. According to the latest U.S. Treasury Department data, the DCA had dispatched only […]

Andre Dickens doesn’t want to be compared to Keisha Lance Bottoms, but the incoming mayor doesn’t have much choice. When Dickens takes over from Bottoms next month, he’ll be charged with navigating the pandemic, fighting crime, and pulling Atlanta out of an affordable housing crisis—a daunting checklist that his predecessor has been chipping away at […]

In a blow to Atlanta planning officials’ effort to boost intown density and housing affordability, the city council’s zoning committee this week shot down legislation that would have spurred more diverse residential construction and reduced car dependency. Authored by City Councilmember Amir Farokhi, the proposed ordinance sought to make the city more welcoming to accessory dwelling units—such as basement […]

Atlanta Mayor-elect Andre Dickens has vowed to make housing affordability a top priority when he takes office in January. So did Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms when she campaigned in 2017. Could the self-proclaimed champion of affordable housing make a bigger dent in the city’s mounting housing crisis than his predecessor? Like Bottoms, Dickens has promised that the […]

The state agency that received Georgia’s largest chunk of federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funds announced Wednesday that it plans to turn some of that cash over to local governments who have done a better job distributing it to renters and landlords in need. Early this year, the U.S. Treasury Department allocated $552.3 million in […]

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will step down from her post before her $1 billion affordable housing goal can be realized. The city is on track to spend at least that much building and preserving units by 2026 (which would have been the end of her once-envisioned second term). But when Bottoms announced in May […]

More affordable apartments for seniors are bound for a site just south of the Avondale MARTA station, marking another win for transit-oriented development advocates. On Friday, representatives with developer Columbia Residential announced the firm’s Senior Residences at Decatur East project had secured a coveted 9-percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)—a highly competitive public subsidy—from […]

The head of a national nonprofit has decried the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ (DCA) Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program as “one of the worst in the country” and called for the state agency to either get its act together or let other organizations take the reins. The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) held a rally […]

Haunted by past lawsuits and leadership strife, Atlanta Housing (AH) has long been admonished by public officials for dysfunction and underachievement. Though the housing authority’s CEO, Eugene Jones, says the agency has stepped up its game since he came aboard two years ago, his job and others could be on the line once voters pick the next mayor. Mayoral […]

The COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t exactly devastating for landlords, according to a new report by JPMorgan Chase. Though many landlords lost rental revenues—especially at the onset of the pandemic—they were able to cut expenses by more, yielding higher balances. Rent payments dropped off by about 20 percent in April and May of 2020, but landlords were able to […]

With a down-ballot measure overshadowed by the mayoral contest, city council races, and, of course, baseball, Atlanta homeowners quietly secured a tax break that was set to expire at the end of the year. The Atlanta School Homestead Exemption, which was architected by state lawmakers with Atlanta Public Schools (APS) Board of Education backing, passed with support from […]

In a pair of dueling press conferences Monday morning, activists, public officials, and mayoral candidates clashed over the best recourse for the Peoplestown residents whose lives have been upended by years of flooding and a remediation effort that threatens to force them out of their homes. In 2014, then Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration proposed dedicating […]

President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan sets aside $150 billion for housing affordability initiatives, a promise that — if adopted — would cast a lifeline to millions of renters and homeowners drowning in financial problems spurred by the pandemic. The whopping $1.75 trillion spending plan, unveiled on Thursday after months of negotiating in Congress, would propel the construction […]

A titan in the Sisyphean crusade for housing affordability, Noel Khalil passed away on Monday at 70 years old. One of metro Atlanta’s pioneers of mixed-income and affordable housing, Khalil built and preserved thousands of units across the region and, ultimately, set a certain standard for accessible residential development in Atlanta and beyond. “His vision […]