Author Archives: Sean Keenan

On Monday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called on the nation’s legal community to help curb the “devastating” impact the “looming housing and eviction crisis” could have on Americans due to the abrupt ending of the federal eviction freeze. “As federal and local eviction moratoriums expire around the country, eviction filings are expected to spike to […]

For more than a year, Atlanta renters have dreaded the crash of what Terri Lee, the city’s chief housing officer, called a “tsunami” of evictions — a tidal wave of displacement in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it seems that wave is cresting, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Biden administration’s nationwide ban on […]

Fulton County officials announced during a Wednesday press conference that tenants in need of emergency assistance money can now request as much as they need, lifting restrictions that had capped the maximum total payment at $9,000. Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts also revealed that renters now could seek emergency rental and utility assistance funds for up to 18 months, […]

Representing Decatur’s Efficiency Lodge, former Gov. Roy Barnes argued in the Georgia Court of Appeals on Tuesday that the federal eviction moratorium had emboldened some motel guests to appeal for tenant rights — a ploy, he said, to avoid being kicked out for not paying the bill for their stay. The case hinges on whether a panel […]

Many emergency rental assistance programs pay landlords on behalf of struggling tenants. If someone’s behind on rent, utility bills or other housing-related expenses, their respective city, county or state will write a check — usually with federal funds — directly to the party that’s owed. In Santa Fe, N.M., though, officials have afforded their residents […]

An analysis of the latest U.S. Census data paints a troubling picture — one that underscores a grim future for housing affordability in metro Atlanta. Statewide, between 2010 and 2020, the population grew by 10.6 percent, up to more than 10.7 million Georgians. The total number of housing units, however, increased by just 7.9 percent, […]

A case developing in Georgia’s court of appeals could soon determine whether three people who have lived at an extended-stay hotel in DeKalb County are legally recognized as residents, rather than as guests — and, effectively, whether they can be shielded from displacement by the federal eviction moratorium. The three plaintiffs, who are represented by […]

The Atlanta Civic Center could finally be bound for resurrection. Vacant since 2014, the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center — an Old Fourth Ward landmark erected in the late 1960s — has long been itching for a comeback that would reinvent it as a place Atlantans can once again embrace. Read the full story on Atlanta Civic Circle.

Although the federal eviction moratorium has once again been extended, local housing experts foresee a swell of evictions that could force tens of thousands of metro Atlantans out of their homes. To brace for the wave of displacement, Atlanta City Councilman Matt Westmorland pushed legislation to donate a total of $20,000 to two intown legal agencies who […]

Charlotte City Councilman Braxton Winston calls it “single-family exclusionary zoning” — a series of city design laws that perpetuates racial and socioeconomic disparities by mandating, in certain places, suburban-style development. In Charlotte, like in Atlanta, much of the city’s residential areas are zoned for single-family development only, meaning you can’t build denser than what you […]

More than 250,000 Georgia renters have secured a few more weeks of protection from potential displacement, after the Biden Administration on Tuesday enacted an eviction moratorium for communities severely afflicted by the coronavirus pandemic. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies most of Georgia — and all metro Atlanta counties — as at […]

The end of the federal eviction moratorium has amplified demand for tenant protections nationwide, especially as COVID-19’s Delta variant surges. In Atlanta, public health experts say eviction prevention is vital to curbing the spread of the deadly virus. On Tuesday, Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University, told Atlanta Civic Circle that “it’s […]

As the federal eviction moratorium edges toward its July 31 expiration, nearly a fifth of metro Atlanta renters are behind on rent. Those with arrears owe an average of $3,891, according to a New York Times analysis. Of the 11-county metro Atlanta region, Clayton County has the highest proportion of renters owing back rent, with 25.4 percent behind […]

Atlanta Housing’s (AH) board of commissioners on Wednesday passed a resolution paving the way for the distribution of 202 emergency housing vouchers for people whose lives have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), thanks to the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the new emergency housing voucher program expands upon […]

With less than a week until the federal eviction moratorium is set to expire, some 40 percent of Georgia renters worry they could soon be out on the streets. That’s according to a new report by QuoteWizard, an online insurance comparison marketplace, which analyzed data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveys. The research indicates […]

Georgia renters must earn nearly three times the minimum wage in order to afford a typical two-bedroom home without spending more than 30 percent of their income. In metro Atlanta and the city itself, it could take almost five times the state’s $7.25-an-hour wage to do the same. In order to rent a standard two-bedroom […]

Three of the five top contenders for Atlanta mayor declared during a candidate forum Wednesday that they’d commit to expanding the city’s budget by tens of millions of dollars to further affordable housing initiatives. Former Mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore made no such promise. “The city can’t afford to expand […]

In a recent bid to boost housing affordability and brace for Atlanta’s expected population explosion, City Councilman Amir Farokhi proposed a suite of ordinances that would help densify the residential areas near transit stations and make them less car-dependent. The first of the three proposals aims to rezone properties within a half-mile walk from mass transit stops […]

A production company set to shoot a TV show downtown helped put homeless activists up in hotel rooms on Tuesday, after local leaders told them they couldn’t camp in tents along the sidewalk. Activists with the Atlanta Homeless Union, a new advocacy group demanding more resources for unhoused people, claimed crews with Central Atlanta Progress’s Atlanta […]

With the end of the federal eviction moratorium right around the corner, a recent computer error frustrated the City of Atlanta’s emergency housing assistance program, complicating renters’ ability to seek financial support amid the pandemic. Last week, soon after the city announced its federally funded assistance program would be again accepting applications, some would-be recipients of the money […]