Posted inAtlanta Civic Circle

State agency turns over $80 million in unspent rental assistance funds to metro Atlanta counties with thousands of applicants

By Sean Keenan for Atlanta Civic Circle The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has released $80.6 million in federal rental assistance funds to five metro Atlanta counties — Fulton, DeKalb, Henry, Clayton, and Hall — that have already spent their own federal funds to help tenants facing eviction, with thousands more seeking aid. Fulton […]

Posted inColumns

Understanding the housing affordability problem

By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, Georgia Tech professor of practice and former Atlanta planning commissioner

Over the last couple of years, housing costs have shot up in Atlanta. Already rising before, it is now difficult for households earning below median incomes to find decent housing in a stable neighborhood. Rentals are outpacing homeowners in the market, spawning more build-to-rent activity.

Posted inUncategorized

Getting affordable housing right – a beige paper*

By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, Georgia Tech professor of practice and former Atlanta planning commissioner Need: A place to call home for all of Atlanta’s people Purpose: Understanding what it takes to fulfill that need * Beige, because this paper is more suggestive than authoritative, more “of color,” inviting comment, not a “white” paper, thus […]

Posted inColumns

Atlanta’s proposal offers false hopes for housing affordability, breaks from ‘Atlanta City Design’

By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, Georgia Tech professor of practice and former Atlanta planning commissioner

Stop, look and listen. Atlanta’s misguided densification planning and zoning strategy is barreling down the tracks. It has many negatives – it will exacerbate the housing affordability crisis, destabilize neighborhoods and gut the NPUs ability to shape their neighborhood’s future.