On Aug. 27, the Invest Atlanta board of directors approved $600,000 in funding for “middle wage” job training and placement for city residents.
The economic development agency gave funds to Goodwill of North Georgia and the Urban League of Greater Atlanta. It’s part of Invest Atlanta’s Middle Wage Job Economic Opportunity Fund, created to incentivize middle wage job opportunities for city residents as part of the agency’s economic development strategy.
A so-called “middle wage” in Atlanta would earn roughly $23 to $30 an hour, or about $50,000 a year.
Of the total funds, $300,000 will go to Goodwill of North Georgia and its Good Works Program. The money will support training and placement of 150 city residents into middle-wage job opportunities, like welding, forklift operations, supply chain management, phlebotomy, pump technician work and commercial driving.
The program will provide paid work experience, career coaching and placement services — once the participants receive a permanent job they will keep it for at least one year.
“These programs are particularly aligned with Atlanta’s economy and where we are heading,” Invest Atlanta Senior Vice President of Economic Development Laurie Prickett said. “Environmental remediation, clean energy, healthcare and other future-focused industries.”
Invest Atlanta greenlit an additional $300,000 to the Urban League of Greater Atlanta, a service-oriented civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment. The funds will help the Career Accelerator Pathway Program as it works to “up-skill or re-skill” local residents.
The program will offer career coaching, workforce readiness training, employer engagement and barrier reduction services through partnership with the Atlanta Department of Labor and Employment Services. Like Goodwill, once participants complete the program, they will work their permanent job for at least a year.
“These are just a portion of what these organizations are going to fundraise and put their own money into,” Atlanta Mayor and Invest Atlanta board member Andre Dickens said. “We’re supplementing and helping them to serve people in an even more impactful way.”
The board also approved millions in funding for affordable housing developments across the city. First, the members greenlit an additional $1 million in Westside TAD funds to the Westside Future Fund’s 18-unit affordable development on James P. Brawley Drive. The project broke ground last week.
The board gave funds to two more Westside Future Fund projects, too: $1.5 million for the Proctor Paines development in English Avenue, to create 25 multifamily units and another $2.5 million for 54 multifamily affordable units in English Avenue. The units will range from 30 percent to 80 percent of the area median income, or AMI.
In the Sandy Springs-Roswell-Atlanta area, the AMI for a four-person family is about $114,200.
Invest Atlanta okayed another $1 million in Metropolitan TAD Resurgens Grant dollars to an 80-unit development in Sylvan Hills. The three-story community will have multifamily units from 30 to 80 percent AMI. The board also greenlit $500,000 for four new construction homes and one single-family home in English Avenue, at 60 to 70 percent AMI.
The last affordable housing development came with some discussion — $210,000 in funds to the Atlanta Police Foundation to build three new single-family homes for Atlanta Police Department officers.
Board member Ken Zeff expressed concern about building designated affordable housing for a specific group “at the exclusion of others” under fair housing laws. According to other board members, the move is legal as long as Invest Atlanta gives a grant to the Atlanta Police Foundation, a nonprofit, which will then provide “various things to support the Atlanta Police Department,” like housing.
