Quality Housing For Everyone
Watch Mayor Dickens’ speech on the state of affordable housing in Atlanta
Mayor Andre Dickens is committed to making Atlanta A City of Opportunity for All. A key part of this is ensuring that all Atlantans have access to safe, quality and affordable housing. This means development without displacement and providing residents – newcomers and legacy residents alike – with practical, diverse housing options.
Mayor Dickens set the ambitious goal of building or preserving 20,000 units of affordable housing across the city by 2030. The Administration has made real progress towards this goal: more than 3,000 affordable housing units have been delivered and nearly 5,000 are in development since 2022.
Stable, affordable housing paves the way for so many benefits in our community: increased economic mobility, reduced crime, better health outcomes, higher educational achievement and more. That’s why the City’s housing efforts go beyond construction to directly help Atlantans, especially legacy residents, low-income households and the unhoused population.
The Dickens Administration’s comprehensive Quality Housing for Everyone agenda is built on the following:
Affordable Housing Investments
As of October 2023, we are already 40% of the way towards Mayor Dickens’ goal of 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030. Of the 8,000 units constructed or in development, 72% have been set aside for households earning 60% AMI or below.
To expand the scale and pace of our progress, the City is leveraging $300 million in public and private investment. This is the largest single infusion of local funding for affordable housing in Atlanta’s history. We've secured $100 million from the Whitehead and Woodruff Foundations in partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and $100 million from the Housing Opportunity Bond. We are well on our way to raising an additional $100 million in other private and philanthropic commitments.
In May 2022, Mayor Dickens activated the Affordable Housing Strike Force to coordinate and prioritize affordable housing projects. This body has produced meaningful results for Atlanta, including identifying and moving forward on affordable housing development projects on 40 underutilized public land sites in our city.
Supporting Legacy & Senior Residents
The City wants to ensure that the legacy and senior residents who helped build Atlanta can age in place in safe, stable housing. A number of initiatives have been established to help more Atlantans remain in their communities. For example, the relaunched Heritage Owner-Occupied Rehab Program helps homeowners make essential health and safety repairs. In addition, thanks to a generous donation from Tyler Perry, the City paid the back property taxes for over 300 seniors and froze the property taxes for 100 low-income seniors for the next 20 years. The City will launch the Anti-Displacement Tax Fund to freeze taxes for up to 1,800 households for up to 20 years.
Safe & Secure Housing
No Atlantan should live in substandard housing conditions. In 2022, Mayor Dickens took quick action to address the public safety and quality of life issues faced by Forest Cove residents. The City worked with its partners to successfully relocate 193 families to safe and stable housing. The City of Atlanta also recently announced its intention to pursue a class action lawsuit against the owner of the Forest Cove Apartment complex, Millennia.
The Dickens Administration is using a proactive, data-driven strategy to target other problematic multi-family properties and ensure the dignity and security of residents across Atlanta. In June 2023, the City allocated $800,000 to boost interventions against multifamily properties having code violations. The goal is to inspect all properties with code violations by the end of 2024.
To help households at risk of losing their homes, in October 2023, the City directed $2 million to the local nonprofit Star-C to support an Eviction Diversion Program.
Housing Help Center
The City of Atlanta opened the Housing Help Center in the fall of 2023. This one-stop-shop will connect Atlanta residents with resources on renting, buying and more. Notably, the Center offers personalized case management from the City’s Housing Navigators for qualified residents.
Unhoused Atlantans
The Dickens Administration is working to make homelessness brief, rare and non-recurring. Through the LIFT 2.0 homeless response plan, the City collaborates with government, nonprofit, business and community stakeholders to provide support services to those in need. So far, over 820 households have been rehoused – over halfway towards the plan’s goal of 1,500 household placements by December 31, 2024.
The City aims to provide additional immediate assistance to people experiencing homelessness through its Rapid Housing Initiative. Housing and wraparound services for 40 individuals will be in place before the end of this year as part of this effort. By the end of 2025, at least 500 Rapid Housing units will be established across the city.
Housing for Persons with HIV or AIDS
The Dickens Administration has supported and streamlined the processes of Atlanta’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program. HOPWA is a federal program dedicated to the housing needs of people living with HIV or AIDS. Since taking office, Mayor Dickens has worked to ensure Atlanta’s HOPWA program is up to date. By June 2022, the City fully cleared out the 2019-2021 backlog of payments. It now completes payments within 30 days.
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