Author Archives: Sean Keenan

In its relief package last December, Congress set aside billions of dollars to help millions of Americans at risk of being evicted from their homes amid the economic fallout of the pandemic. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program sought to provide a lifeline in the form of cash grants to renters and landlords, administered […]

Following an executive order by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta City Council members proposed an ordinance this week that would set in stone the community benefits promises to come from the Gulch redevelopment. Part of developer CIM Group’s $5 billion rebirth of downtown’s 50-acre pit of parking spaces and railroad tracks is the creation of […]

If folks facing criminal charges are afforded legal representation by the government, shouldn’t people at risk of eviction be extended the same privilege? Some public officials and legal professionals in metro Atlanta think so. Earlier this month, Atlanta City Councilmember Michael Julian Bond introduced legislation that seeks to provide public defenders to tenants facing dispossessory claims in […]

Forthcoming Atlanta City Council legislation will guarantee that the controversial Gulch redevelopment will propel affordable housing initiatives across town, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said during a Thursday press conference. Propped up by nearly $2 billion in public financing and tax incentives, the potentially $5 billion plan to revitalize downtown’s 50-acre concrete wasteland calls for the […]

Although Georgia has been slower to distribute federal rental assistance funds than most of the country, officials with the state’s Department of Community Affairs (DCA) say they won’t forfeit any of the money back to the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury officials are at liberty to reclaim and reallocate Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program cash from governments that […]

Atlanta City Councilman Andre Dickens recently proposed legislation that aims to encourage developers to include what experts have called “deep affordability” at residential projects in some of the city’s rapidly gentrifying communities. The proposed ordinance would add another option to the city’s inclusionary zoning (IZ) policies, which today require developers to earmark a portion of residential units […]

The top contenders in Atlanta’s mayoral race knocked the city’s housing authority during a candidate forum Wednesday, lamenting that Atlanta Housing (AH) isn’t doing enough to shelter the city’s most marginalized people. AH leaders, however, say the candidates don’t know what they’re talking about. Could both sides be right? On Wednesday, the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum assembled […]

Legislation proposed during Monday’s Atlanta City Council meeting endeavors to launch a trust fund dedicated to building and preserving affordable housing. Authored by Councilman Matt Westmoreland and backed by eight other city leaders — including mayoral candidates Antonio Brown and Andre Dickens — the ordinance aims to establish the “Building the Beloved Community Affordable Housing […]

Amid a mounting eviction crisis throttling Georgia’s legal system, some organizations have enlisted law students to help people access rental assistance and avoid displacement. The Georgia Legal Services Program (GLSP), a nonprofit that provides free legal help to the 154 counties outside of metro Atlanta, is among the organizations that’s seen this “all-hands-on-deck moment” as […]

Rent prices in Atlanta climbed 2.9 percent over the past month, according to a brow-raising new report by online rental marketplace Apartment List. Intown rents are also up nearly 19 percent since this time last year, after ten straight months of increases followed a brief decline last November, the report said. These price hikes put the median […]

Tenants at a public housing community on Atlanta’s southside are begging for the property owner to fix up the virtually uninhabitable complex. Millennia Housing Management (MHM), which owns the Forest Cove apartments, told Atlanta Civic Circle this week that help is on the way, but residents say it’s not coming fast enough. After years of teasing a […]

A new congressional bill seeks to resurrect the recently killed federal eviction freeze that many renters saw as their last defense against displacement. On Tuesday, Congresswoman Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, unveiled the Keeping Renters Safe Act of 2021, legislation which, if enacted, would establish a new residential eviction moratorium “to address public health crises.” Sponsored […]

The Atlanta City Council on Monday voted to inject another $12 million of federal money into its emergency rental assistance (ERA) account, paving the way for the city to accept more applicants for vital government funds as the pandemic threatens the financial and housing stability of tens of thousands in the metro area. The newly […]

Bemoaning the bureaucratic roadblocks encumbering DeKalb County’s emergency rental assistance program, a man who leases out just a single home in the community said Thursday, “I’m never going to be a landlord again when this is all done.” During a virtual town hall meeting hosted by County Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson, this landlord and others, […]

Congresswoman Cori Bush introduced legislation earlier this week that seeks to expand access to federal emergency rental assistance (ERA) money, a proposal that could ramp up the distribution of critical funding at a time when many states — including Georgia — are lagging. The move by the Missouri Democrat comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme […]

The City of Atlanta’s ongoing zoning code overhaul could impact how the city grows for decades to come, so it comes as no surprise that planning officials’ efforts have drawn both the praise and ire of residents across town. Many affordable housing advocates and city planning experts are excited at the prospect of finding ways […]

The City of Atlanta’s economic development agency is on the hunt for developers interested in building affordable housing across the street from City Hall. City officials announced on Wednesday that Invest Atlanta had issued a request for proposals (RFP), calling on firms to pitch ideas for building out 104 Trinity Avenue, a 1.3-acre city-owned property that today […]

Georgia’s most populous county, which includes most of the City of Atlanta, is not considering enacting a temporary eviction ban, despite having a backlog of landlord-tenant cases awaiting magistrate court judges, as well as millions of dollars in unspent federal rent relief money. Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt told Atlanta Civic Circle on Wednesday that the county’s superior court is “not […]

Localized eviction bans would render some much-needed breathing room to renters at risk of displacement due to the pandemic, especially as governments across Georgia sluggishly distribute federal funds meant to help keep financially burdened tenants at home. That’s according to the heads of legal organizations that specialize in supporting lower-income metro Atlantans, as well as local housing […]

At long last, Atlanta’s housing authority is on the hunt for developers that could revive the Atlanta Civic Center. Built in the late 1960s and anchored by an impressive performance hall that once hosted opera singers, ballet dancers and political icons, the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center has been deserted since 2014, aching for a comeback. […]