Once they were finished, the citizen planners who on Saturday offered their ideas about how to promote housing development in Atlanta relied heavily on many of the same tools used around the nation for more than 30 years – government incentives to entice the free market to meet a public need for housing at all prices.
Atlanta’s in an affordable housing “crisis,” it’s got a “shortage.” But two people talking about “affordable housing” might not mean the same thing.
Cities across the country join metro Atlanta in facing shortages of affordable housing that stem, in part, from a surge in the proportion of rental homes that are built and priced for wealthy folks who want to rent, not own, a home, according to a recent report from a think tank at Harvard University.
The shortage of affordable homes in metro Atlanta is function of the shortage of homes in all price ranges. The lack of housing units of all types is driving up the prices of the units that do exist, a real estate analyst said Wednesday at the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum.
Atlanta’s latest effort to create affordable housing is underway in Carey Park, a Northwest neighborhood the city plans to rezone to a classification intended to promote development of houses for those with low to moderate incomes.
Atlanta’s a growing city, the crown jewel of the nation, declared Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in a major speech on Wednesday. But she said it’s going to to need to draw on a spirit of inclusiveness and cooperation to help residents, communities and businesses that are being left behind.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge has handed a setback to Atlanta’s housing authority in its court bid to stop a sale of its land at below-market prices.
By Guest Columnist KATHLEEN FARRELL, head of commercial real estate at SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Over the last decade, as millennials entered the workforce and delayed or indefinitely avoided buying a home, apartment complexes sprang up across Atlanta – as they did in many U.S. cities – to meet the growing demand for rental housing. Many of these new developments were built as luxury living experiences in order to command higher rents and meet the expectations of a younger clientele. The result was a robust supply of high-end units that have been absorbed by Atlanta’s strong job market, but a dearth of affordable, workforce housing.
A big yellow excavator at Spencer and Walnut streets in Vine City was still on Friday morning — but just for a while, so folks could enjoy a ceremony to mark the groundbreaking for an apartment being built there so that seniors can afford it.
Atlanta plans to rebuild 19 acres at the Civic Center as a mixed-use, mixed income-development. Some folks who came to a city meeting about it are saying they’re looking for walkability, connections to the rest of the city, and preserving the buildings that are on the site.
Atlanta’s development agency has voted to sell the city’s housing authority 7.8 acres of land in Vine City for a $60 million mixed-income residential project.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced three new affordable housing programs Friday to help low income homeowners from being displaced.
The three programs total $9 million, which the mayor said was a “drop in the bucket” of what needed to be invested to make Atlanta an affordable city for everyone.
By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, a professor of the practice of planning at Georgia Tech’s College of Design and and a longtime advocate for housing affordability
The city is making constructive strides toward addressing its ever-growing affordable housing needs. Researchers are pretty much in agreement that a stable, safe, and affordable home provides the fundamental and essential grounding for families to make their way into better education, improved health, higher incomes, and a quality of life that holds out hope.
Crytocurrency doesn’t have a thing on real estate along the Atlanta BeltLine when it comes to the adrenalin rush of speculative investing. The city’s proposal to demolish four derelict houses reminds of that, along with the tatty condition of some dwellings in BeltLine neighborhoods that are supposed to be poised for a gold rush.
When the City of Atlanta sold the 19-acre Civic Center site to the Atlanta Housing Authority for $31 million, the deal occurred with virtually no public involvement.
It was a deal struck by two public officials – Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Catherine Buell, president and CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority.
Affordable housing developer Egbert Perry, and his Atlanta-based company – Integral, are fighting back against claims by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) that he had received a sweetheart deal to buy land next to his company’s existing developments.
In an effort to set the record straight, Integral and its development partners filed a legal response late Saturday to an AHA lawsuit. The response seeks to correct several statements AHA and Reed have made, which Perry said are misrepresentations of his company’s actions and history.
By Guest Columnist HATTIE DORSEY, civic volunteer, founder and retired president of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership
After reading recent news articles about Egbert Perry and the Integral Co., I find I just cannot sit idly by and not respond in some fashion. I reluctantly take issue with many of my housing advocate friends who express concern based on media reports that do not dive into the history of what public housing use to be like in Atlanta. Because I happen to know what Integral’s vision was – Redevelop the terrible public housing projects into new and mixed income communities – I want to add my voice because I was involved.
When U.S. Housing Secretary Ben Carson arrived Tuesday in Atlanta’s Bedford Pine neighborhood to tour a new apartment community for low-income seniors, there was little to remind of the long road traveled to complete the project. All eyes were looking forward, not back.
By Maria Saporta An affordable arts community will be bringing new life to the historic George Adair School in the Adair Park neighborhood in southwest Atlanta. The Creatives Project, an arts nonprofit, has joined forces with local developers Stryant Investments and Building Insights Inc. to offer affordable housing to artists and people in the creative […]
By Guest Columnist DAVID SUITTS, founder of Unite For Kids Atlanta
When people ask why I care about early childhood development, I think back to when I first thought I could maybe teach.
There’s a Youtube video of that summer: I’m filming and talking at three girls, none whom could be older than 6 years.
