Margie McLeod spent Tuesday outside the Georgia State Capitol in downtown Atlanta trying to sway lawmakers to support a bill she already knew was unlikely to get signed into law this year. “I’m not the type of person to give up,” the 75-year-old community activist told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. “We don’t know what’s […]
Housing
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Atlanta Has an Affordable Housing Problem. Can John Legend Help?
In the pews of Atlanta First United Methodist Church in Downtown, John Legend is listening to a story from the Rev. Jasmine Smothers. The lead pastor is talking about her journey from seminary school to where she is now, standing in front of city leaders, housing organizations, and a couple of city photographers talking about […]
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Why This Black Lawmaker is Pushing Rent Control Legislation
A veteran member of the Georgia General Assembly is calling for an end to the state’s 39-year-old ban on rent control laws. State Sen. Donzella James on Thursday introduced a bill that would repeal sections of Georgia law barring local governments from issuing rent regulation restrictions. Georgia lawmakers issued a statewide ban on such laws […]
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Tenants Denied Rent Relief Express Outrage Over City’s $10M in Unused Funds
Cherie Miller was angry Monday morning when she heard that city leaders had announced plans to send $10 million in unused COVID-19 rent relief funds back to the federal government. The 55-year-old grandmother is in the process of being evicted from the Capitol Gateway Apartments near Downtown, where she’s been renting for the past 11 […]
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Can This Community Activist Get Rent Control on the Ballot?
Community activist Margie McLeod spent years watching gentrification spread across Atlanta before deciding to do something about it last year. The 75-year-old retired bus driver grew tired of seeing her neighbors in Cascade kicked out of their homes after landlords dramatically raised their rents. Rates in South Atlanta soared during the first half of 2022 […]
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The Next Chapter in the Battle Over Historically Black Peoplestown
The former home of Summerhill and Peoplestown legend Mattie King Ansley Jackson, who died two years ago at the age of 98, is like a museum now — full of pictures and memories that put a smile on the face of her adoring daughter, Sheryl Calhoun. Calhoun inherited the house in 2020, the year her […]
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Local Housing Forum to Discuss Strengthening Tenants’ Rights in Georgia
With an increasingly unaffordable market, Atlanta’s housing crisis has become a hot topic over the past year for many residents. For the Black community, the stakes have never been higher. Eviction threats, uninhabitable living conditions, and rising home prices have housing advocates and community leaders alike calling for stronger tenant protections across the metro area. […]
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Facing Eviction, Forest at Columbia Residents Meet with DeKalb Commissioner
Tenants from Forest at Columbia — the Panthersville-based apartment complex at the center of an alleged illegal eviction controversy — have gained new allies in their fight to keep their homes. DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson arranged for staffers from the county’s Community Development Department to visit Forest at Columbia on Aug. 5, less than […]
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‘An Illegal Eviction’: Forest at Columbia Residents Feel Blindsided By Ownership
Freshly packed and stacked cardboard boxes formed a pile in front of the wall-mounted television inside Cynthia Arnold’s living room. The 68-year-old grandmother had “Sanford and Son” on the tube, but it was harder than usual for her to watch with medical gauze taped over her lacerated right eye. It’s an injury Arnold said she […]
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A Guide to Atlanta’s NPU System
The city of Atlanta’s 2023 fiscal year budget feedback and approval process is over, but you can still have a say in how your tax dollars are spent. How, you ask? Neighborhood Planning Units, aka NPUs. NPUs are advisory councils designed to amplify the voices of city residents, giving them a way to express their […]
