Atlanta community activists advocating on behalf of low-income Black families are raising gentrification concerns about Mayor Andre Dickens’ $5 billion neighborhood reinvestment initiative. The program calls for the extension of existing tax allocation districts (TADs) to help pay for revamping majority-Black neighborhoods on the city’s southwest side. TADs — also referred to as tax incremental […]
Housing
Posted inElections, Housing, Politics & Policy
Ossoff Talks Affordable Housing, Delivering for Black Voters
Lack of affordable housing is “probably the number one issue” impacting everyone in metro Atlanta, especially the region’s Black community, according to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. It’s why he says he’s spent years combatting abusive corporate landlords and promoting affordable home construction across the state. “I’m in the midst now of an ongoing investigation of […]
Posted inHousing
Black Homebuyers’ Affordability Woes Persist Despite Lower Atlanta Prices
Atlanta native Akasha Lawrence dreams of owning a three-bedroom house in the city where she was born and raised, but finding one in her price range this year has been “a little difficult.” The 29-year-old Midtown resident was one of many aspiring Black homebuyers who participated in Invest Atlanta’s Homeownership Month Open House Tour in […]
Posted inHousing
From Care Packs to 311 Calls: 5 Ways to Help the Unhoused Now
In a city grappling with an affordable housing crisis, within a state that’s banned rent control, Atlanta’s mostly Black homeless population continues to increase. The annual survey of homeless people in the metro area revealed a 1% rise in Atlanta’s overall homeless population. The city saw a 7% year-over-year increase in 2024, and a 33% […]
Posted inHousing
Thrown Away ‘Like Trash’: Displaced Tenants Speak Out After Complex Is Condemned
Quentin Carey is a single father who lived with his 16-year-old son at a dilapidated apartment complex in College Park for three years. In March, the unemployed warehouse worker received a notice saying he had seven days to move out because the property was unsafe. Carolyn Huitt, a retired home health aid, lived at the […]
Posted inHousing
Evicted and Soon Homeless: How Metro Atlanta Landlords Put Black Families on the Streets
Keita Martin worries he’ll be homeless again before the end of the summer. The 32-year-old Marietta native is one of several tenants at Campus Edge Apartments, who say they’re being booted out of the complex near Kennesaw State University by its new owners. Campus Realty Advisors, an Atlanta-based real estate development company, confirmed it officially […]
Posted inHousing
What to Do If You’re Being Evicted in Metro Atlanta
Protests over controversial evictions have occurred across metro Atlanta recently, and local tenant attorneys say Black Georgians make up the majority of those involved in cases they encounter in court. Many renters who receive troubling calls or letters from their landlords move out prematurely when they should fight back, according to tenant attorney Michael Lucas, […]
Posted inCity Politics, Housing
If Atlanta Is a Black Mecca, Why Are 8 Out of 10 Homeless People Black?
Forty-seven percent of Atlanta residents are Black, but the city commonly referred to as the Black Mecca had a homeless population in January that was 80% Black, according to the latest Point-In-Time homelessness census count released on Monday. Of equal concern, on Jan. 27, the city logged 131 homeless families, an 18% rise from the […]
Posted inHousing
Revamped Motel Gives Atlanta’s Unhoused a Second Chance — But for How Long?
Malcolm Walker was grateful to have a roof over his head on Monday after spending the past six months living under a bridge. The 32-year-old Atlanta resident was one of up to 80 unhoused people living in tents at the Pryor Street homeless encampment — located downtown under Interstate 20 — before a crew of […]
Posted inGentrification, Housing
Atlanta’s Largest Homeless Encampment Is About to Be Cleared
Atlanta’s largest homeless encampment is scheduled to be “decommissioned” on Monday as city officials continue working to clear potentially hazardous tent cities in the wake of the January tragedy that resulted in Cornelius Taylor’s death. Up until recently, the encampment located downtown beneath Interstate 20 on Pryor Street was home to as many as 80 […]