Category: Housing Affordability

More than 24,000 names make up Atlanta Housing’s (AH) waiting list for rent vouchers. The coronavirus pandemic, of course, complicated the agency’s efforts to chip away at the backlog, but officials are optimistic that the waning of the public health crisis, coupled with assistance from the federal government, promises a brighter future for Atlantans seeking […]

Atlanta Housing (AH) officials on Wednesday took steps toward launching the second phase of construction on the agency’s first new build in over a decade. During Wednesday’s board of commissioners meeting, AH leaders authorized actions paving the way for the issuance of a $984,225 predevelopment loan for Herndon Square, a potentially $166 million mixed-use development […]

“I don’t think most Atlantans are scared of having people live near them who don’t make as much money as they do.” That’s Dentons attorney Sharon Gay, who recently kicked off her campaign for Atlanta mayor. Gay spoke with Atlanta Civic Circle about her goals for housing, including boosting affordability, rethinking the city’s zoning code and getting […]

As part of another $5 billion dispatch of emergency housing assistance funds, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has granted nearly 1,400 housing vouchers to public agencies across Georgia. These vouchers, announced on Monday and financed by Congress’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, represent a federal effort to reduce and prevent homelessness […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 — […]

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 […]

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 […]

A 31-story tower expected to sprout downtown is poised to deliver more than 400 apartments marketed to Atlanta’s educators and senior citizens. Developed by developer RBH Group and designed by S9 Architecture, the high-rise is slated to feature 229 rentals that could one day be packed with educators and other intown school employees, as well […]

More than a few local leaders think Atlanta’s laws are too lax for folks who sit on properties and let them decay, hoping they’ll one day be worth a pretty penny. Blight certainly isn’t rare in Atlanta, especially on the city’s Westside and Southside. It’s also not easy to get these properties — eyesores of boarded-up homes, […]

The City of Atlanta’s ongoing zoning code update, which planning department officials have said would make the city more welcoming to truly dense development, might not be as drastic as urbanists and housing affordability advocates had hoped, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Wednesday during a Zoom discussion hosted by Leadership Atlanta. “It’s a process,” Bottoms said, […]

At long last, the City of Atlanta is set to begin accepting new online applications for emergency housing assistance funds. In December, the city closed its online application portal for the federally supported program that provides households financially encumbered by the COVID-19 pandemic with money for rent, utility bills and other housing-related costs. Officials said they were […]

A flood of applicants scrambling for housing assistance amid the pandemic seems to be overwhelming the government programs that distribute the money. “Some jurisdictions, of course, have just cut off their [online] portal processes while they process applications that are already in,” said David Whisnant, housing director at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), […]

While luxury high-rises sprout like weeds in Atlanta’s wealthier neighborhoods, many of the city’s underprivileged communities remain littered with run-down, boarded-up residences. Concentrated on Atlanta’s Southside and Westside, many of those dilapidated properties are uninhabited — not to mention uninhabitable. Sometimes, that’s because those homes belonged to longtime Atlantans who have passed away and perhaps left the […]