Category: Atlanta Civic Circle

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 […]