Category: Atlanta Civic Circle

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 […]

Homelessness is a huge problem in the United States. To try and resolve the issue, some communities are turning to unconventional methods- and it seems to be working. What can Atlanta learn from these communities, and how can the city use this knowledge to help its most vulnerable? Since 2019, the number of people experiencing […]

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 […]

With the federal eviction moratorium set to expire at the end of July, homeless shelters are frantically gearing up for a potential spike in demand for their services. Mellony Gaston, social services director at the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, said she worries the end of the eviction ban could have dire consequences. Many intown homeless shelters […]

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 […]

In late June, MARTA announced it had teamed up with investment-banking giant Goldman Sachs for a $100 million initiative that promises to develop affordable housing units at and around transit stations. “The Atlanta Affordable Housing and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Initiative is a flexible, multi-product program designed to promote and support the development of ground-up mixed-income, […]