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.
For 40 years, Southface has been leading the way in making Atlanta a more sustainable city.
The environmentally-focused nonprofit has been a pioneer in green building practices – and it deserves much of the credit for Atlanta’s national reputation as a city committed to energy and water conservation.
But now Southface is facing its own challenges – likely having to move from its headquarters, now on a .74-acre site along Pine Street near Piedmont, where it has been since 1995.
The Atlanta Housing Authority is heading into the new year with a new chair for a board of commissioners that also has two new fairly new members.
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.
In a couple of years, the place where the Civic Center now stands will be a destination like Atlantic Station or Ponce City Market — with some below-market-rate housing.
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.
By Maria Saporta and Maggie Lee The City of Atlanta plans to sell the 19-acre Civic Center property to the Atlanta Housing Authority, Mayor Kasim Reed announced at a press conference Thursday afternoon. AHA would buy the site for $31 million, and it would partner with Weingarten Realty to develop retail and offices on the […]
The new chair of the board that oversees Atlanta’s housing authority says wants to work with more partners in development, business and education to improve the city’s affordable housing stock.
The board that oversees the Atlanta Housing Authority voted Wednesday to make the interim president/CEO the permanent president/CEO. The move marks the end of the effort by Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration to replace Renee Glover, who formerly held the positions.
Gaines Hall, built in 1869 as a dorm for Atlanta University, caught fire on Aug. 20. The next day, the Atlanta Fire Department said the historic building should be torn down for safety reasons. But local preservationists immediately objected, saying Gaines Hall can and should be saved.
Atlanta has a pretty dismal record when it comes to preservation.
The proposal to demolish a building owned by the Atlanta Housing Authority in the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District is advancing even as the city expects to enact in May a set of new zoning regulations to create an entire landmark district in the area.
The AHA-owned building is located along Auburn Avenue in the heart of the proposed commercial and institutional section of the landmark district. Fulton County property tax records list the owner as Westside Revitalization Acquisitions, LLC. AHA’s report to HUD lists the building as one of its potential tear-downs.
This particular structure, built in 1981, may not be worth saving – an economic review panel will help determine the building’s fate. But the proposed demolition does raise the question of protecting and promoting the King historic district as it is poised for revitalization spurred by the Atlanta Streetcar.
The Atlanta Housing Authority proposes no new initiatives in the first forward-looking report it has prepared for HUD since former CEO Renee Glover left last year following a public two-year dispute with Mayor Kasim Reed.
The report does say AHA intends to provide the Falcons with land near the new stadium for a surface parking lot. This site is part of the now-demolished housing project, Herndon Homes.
Twenty years ago, the media gathered in Atlanta’s East Lake neighborhood likely would have there to report a homicide.
On Tuesday, the media was there to cover Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and U.S. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan proclaiming the renewal of the once-blighted community as a national success story about public private partnerships.
The transformation of the old East Lake Meadows housing project is so profound that nearby homes are now priced at up to $775,000. Donovan said rising property values are a good thing in a city, and that the increased property taxes enable local governments – such as Atlanta’s – to provide programs that keep such neighborhoods affordable to households with a mix of incomes:
By Maria Saporta
Never mind.
The board of the Atlanta Housing Authority, which was to have met Wednesday to vote on a separation agreement with CEO Renee Glover, has cancelled that meeting due to the lack of a quorum.
An earlier story on SaportaReport said that the board was going to be acting on that separation agreement at the meeting.
By Maria Saporta
The board of the Atlanta Housing Authority is scheduled to meet Wednesday Jan. 30 afternoon— one that could be Renee Glover’s last as the organization’s president and CEO.
It is thought that Glover and the AHA board will say that they’re parting ways, and the board is expected to vote on her separation agreement.
