Atlanta labor leaders, community groups and unemployed workers are protesting Gov. Brian Kemp’s recent decision to end supplemental federal unemployment aid. Last Thursday, Kemp said Georgia will no longer participate in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides an additional $300 a week to Georgia’s unemployed. The PUA, which supplements unemployment pay, will end June […]
Category: Atlanta Civic Circle
Posted inHousing Affordability
Could volunteer-run group HouseATL elevate to nonprofit status?
HouseATL officials announced Monday that the affordable housing advocacy group intends to evolve from a volunteer-run coalition to “a stand-alone entity with dedicated staff.” In its latest newsletter, HouseATL’s executive committee — which is comprised of housing industry pros from the public and private sectors — said, “We are in the process of finalizing the organizational structure, […]
Posted inDemocracy
Urban League hosts series of ‘Redistricting 101’ town hall meetings
For the first time in 40 years, Georgia will not get any new congressional seats based on the latest federal census count. As a result, political power could shift in some Georgia counties when Georgia lawmakers begin redistricting later this year. The Urban League is hosting a series of one-hour town hall meetings beginning this week […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Atlanta business leaders want next mayor, councilmembers to prioritize housing affordability
A coalition of Atlanta business heavyweights says the city’s next leaders need to keep housing affordability top of mind during our “post-COVID future.” Last week, the Committee for a Better Atlanta (CBA) — made up of officials from the likes of Coca-Cola, Home Depot and UPS — unveiled its 2021 policy platform, a sort of roadmap […]
Posted inDemocracy
The nation’s top political minds to discuss American democracy
The Jan 6 insurrection in The U.S. Capitol was a decisive stress test for American democracy. What can be done to reimagine and revitalize the tattered concept? What are the most critical elements of a healthy, strong, inclusive democracy in America? Some of the nation’s top political minds will try to answer those questions and […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Councilman Andre Dickens, inclusionary zoning champion, to enter Atlanta mayor’s race
Atlanta City Councilman Andre Dickens is gunning for the city’s chief seat, a source on his mayoral campaign team told Atlanta Civic Circle on Tuesday. The news — that Dickens will declare his candidacy later this week — comes on the heels of Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ Thursday night announcement that she will not pursue a second […]
Posted inDemocracy
Nevada educator launches fundraiser to help businesses impacted by MLB departure
Betsy Fish has never been to Georgia, but that didn’t stop the Reno, Nev. high school teacher from launching a fundraiser to help Atlanta-area businesses affected by Major League Baseball’s decision to take its All-Star Game and Draft event elsewhere. The MLB left Georgia in protest over its new election reform law that some say will […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Congress grants Atlanta Housing $1.4 million in emergency housing vouchers
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will funnel more than $11 million in new emergency housing vouchers to public agencies across Georgia, with roughly $1.4 million going to Atlanta Housing (AH), the city’s housing authority, officials announced Tuesday. The vouchers, funded by Congress’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, will also help low-income […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
What does Atlanta’s wide-open mayoral race mean for housing policy?
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ 2017 win to claim the city’s chief seat can be attributed, at least in part, to her monumental promise to put $1 billion into affordable housing initiatives before 2026. The goal was to produce and preserve some 20,000 affordable units before what would be the end of her second mayoral term. Now, […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Near Microsoft’s Westside site, Beltline buys 31 acres to advance affordable housing mission
Beltline officials today announced their “largest transaction to date in support of affordable housing.” With financial backing from the Atlanta Beltline Partnership — the fundraising arm of the multi-use trail project — and Invest Atlanta, Atlanta Beltline, Inc. (ABI) this week scooped up 31 acres of property just south of where tech giant Microsoft is planning […]
Posted inDemocracy
Georgia enacts new probation reform law
One in four Georgians under supervised felony probation now qualify for early release from probation under a new reform measure signed into law on Monday. The measure is expected to save Georgia $34 million a year — money that normally would have been spent supervising people who qualify for early termination. Going forward, more people […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Fulton County’s emergency housing assistance program, by the numbers
Fulton County is putting on a clinic on how to administer a government program with the utmost transparency. Although the county stopped accepting applications for its $18 million emergency housing assistance program in mid-March — like many governments, Fulton was inundated with requests for financial help — officials have architected an expansive database illustrating how the operation is functioning. The page […]
Posted inDemocracy
The lesser-known forms of voter suppression: one man’s story
It was a single question about continuing a penny sales tax in his rural southwest Georgia county, but voter Stancil Tootle will never know if his answer was what he intended. Tootle is blind, and while sighted voters take for granted their ability to visually verify their ballot choices, it requires the use of an […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
At long last, firm buys “uninhabitable” Southside apartments, gears up for rehab
Forest Cove, a notoriously dilapidated Southside Atlanta apartment complex, has finally changed hands, signaling the start of a multi-million-dollar revival that longtime tenants hope will make the community livable once again. Built in the 1970s, the development had been falling apart for years — even before property manager Millennia Housing Management (MHM) took control in 2017 — […]
Posted inDemocracy
What I’ve learned: Alan Abramowitz, political scientist and election expert
Alan Abramowitz Title: Professor of Political Science Organization: Emory University When local and national media needed to make sense of the most recent election season — which at times seemed senseless and mostly contentious — they turned to Alan Abramowitz. The Emory University political science professor has built an enviable reputation as one of the leading scholars […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Gwinnett’s revamped emergency housing assistance program prioritizes most vulnerable renters
Gwinnett County’s renewed emergency housing assistance program aims to support the community’s most marginalized populations — low-income households and those most strained by the coronavirus pandemic. During a Tuesday press conference, county officials debuted Project RESET 2.0, a federally backed program that provides money for folks struggling to pay rent and utility bills amid the public health […]
Posted inDemocracy
Organizer profile: Shelby Swan
Shelby Swan Age: 27 Occupation: Marketing Residence: Cobb County Community work: Works with The People’s Uprising, a metro Atlanta coalition of organizers as well as ProtectTheVoteGa, a coalition of grassroots organizations in Georgia fighting to stop voter suppression. The weekend after the March 13, 2020, police-shooting death of a young black medical worker named Breonna Taylor, Cobb County resident Shelby Swan […]
Posted inDemocracy
Organizer Profile: Stella Silva-Garcia
Stella Silva-Garcia Age: 47 Occupation: Stay-at-home mom and co-owner of an information technology firm. Family: She and her husband have two sons, 22, and 9. Residence: Alpharetta Community work: No Safe Seats, a community group of suburban moms in North Fulton and Cobb counties. Georgia Familias Unidas, a group working with undocumented workers at poultry plants in Gainesville, Ga. Member of Protect […]
Posted inDemocracy
Virginia may be for lovers but it’s also for voters
While Georgia lawmakers were enacting what some would call a regressive voting law last month, Virginia was creating landmark voting measures. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam restored voting rights to ex-felons, overriding the state’s constitutional mandate that permanently disenfranchises citizens with past felony convictions. He also approved the Voting Rights Act of Virginia. Virginia is the first state […]
Posted inHousing Affordability
Long-delayed sale, rehab of decaying Forest Cove apartments on horizon
Forest Cove’s downward spiral could be coming to an end — one that marks the beginning of the dilapidated, decades-old Section 8 apartment complex’s long-awaited resurrection. Global Ministries Foundation (GMF), which owns the nearly 400-unit community on Atlanta’s Southside, intends to finalize the sale of the property to Millennia Housing Management (MHM) next week, GMF CEO Richard […]
