Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced a joint initiative between the City of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta, and Atlanta Housing Authority to finance new affordable housing units and preserve existing affordable housing units on Thursday, April 25.
Bottoms made the announcement on the grounds of Capitol View Apartments on Metropolitan Parkway, flanked by Terri Lee, City of Atlanta chief housing officer; Dr. Christopher Edwards, board chairman of Atlanta Housing Authority; Clyde Higgs, president and CEO of Atlanta BeltLine; Eloisa Klementich, president and CEO of Invest Atlanta; Noel Khalil, founding partner of Columbia Ventures LLC; and Joyce Sheperd, Atlanta councilmember (District 12).
“In partnership with Atlanta Housing, we are one step closer to achieving our goal of $1 billion towards affordable housing in the city, by announcing today $60 million dollars towards affordable housing in the city of Atlanta,” Bottoms said. “The $60 million puts us at almost 20 percent of our goal and it is also the largest one-time infusion that we’ve had towards our affordable housing effort since I took office January 2018.”
The new funds were approved by Atlanta Housing Board of Commissioners on Tuesday evening. The funds are projected to create and preserve more than 2,000 new affordable housing units in the City of Atlanta.
Bottoms pledged to leverage $1 billion dollars towards housing affordability to produce and preserve 20,000 units of affordable housing within the City of Atlanta by 2026. With this new funding, the City of Atlanta has reached 20 percent of this goal and deliver a range of new affordable housing units and programming.
“This historic collaboration between the City of Atlanta, Invest Atlanta and Atlanta Housing shows that by working together, we can accomplish the mayor’s goal of creating $1 billion in affordable housing,” said Dr. Christopher Edwards, board chairman of the Atlanta Housing Authority.
The new funds will be used to build units, preserve existing affordable units and spur community revitalization through investment in new or existing multifamily developments and rehabilitation of owner-occupied single-family homes. These funds will be used to develop quality affordable housing in the City of Atlanta through co-investment funds with Invest Atlanta.
“This is a prime example of what can happen when the government, the private sector, and our nonprofit partners join together for the common good,” Bottoms said. “Today represents a new era of cooperation among our public and private partners that will help Atlanta remain a place where working families, and residents at all income levels, can afford to live and build their dreams as we become One Atlanta.”
Located on Metropolitan Parkway where University Avenue ends, Capitol View, and its 120 units, will become the first site to undergo renovations as a beneficiary of this major affordable housing initiative.
An advocate for the complex which is located in her district, Shepard discussed her role in bringing Capitol View to the City of Atlanta’s attention and also bringing it to the forefront of the affordable housing discussion.
“I live right up this street,” Sheperd said. “I can walk from my house (to) here. I live in the Capitol View community but I live on Metropolitan Parkway.”
“There have been a lot of people who have complained to me about these apartments and saying, ‘My God, what are you going to do about those apartments,’” Sheperd said. “And when the BeltLine opened up right here, people were saying, ‘that’s an embarrassment that the end of the Westside Trail is right there at those apartments.”
While the BeltLine’s Westside Trail, a 3-mile trail that unites Atlanta’s historic southwest neighborhoods, ends right behind Capitol View, the complex was never been apart of or considered in any plans regarding development along the BeltLine.
“And be honest with you, I took offense to that,” Shepherd said. “I took offense because, I have watched, over the years, these apartments.”
“And even though, what I define as my affordable housing component, I never, all the time I’ve been on council, got any major complaints of crime happening at this apartments.”
Renovations for Capitol View will begin in September. Once completed the new 1-2 bedroom units will be available for $600 and below to families with 30-70 percent area-median-incomes.
The funding will be used towards several new and ongoing affordable housing programs, such as:
• Multifamily Gap: Financing to support for new construction and acquisition or rehabilitation of multifamily properties within the City of Atlanta for long-term affordability.
• Small Urban Infill: Financing to provide funding for small multifamily properties less than 100 units and single-family infill development with mixed-income affordability.
• Heritage Owner-Occupied Rehab Program: $10 million allocated to the Heritage ORR Program, a joint effort from partners including Invest Atlanta, City of Atlanta, the Atlanta Housing Authority, Choice Atlanta, Synergy Real Estate, and several other organizations to help lower-income residents remain in their homes and avoid displacement.
The City of Atlanta and Invest Atlanta have worked closely with Atlanta Housing on several recent affordable housing developments. These include the affordable senior housing developments The Remington, Gateway Capitol View, Legacy at Vine City, and the Madison Reynoldstown.
“There is so much work to be done, so much more money to wrap our hands around to make it happen,” Bottoms said. “But with each step, we take we are getting closer and close to achieving One Atlanta: The Atlanta that Dr. King dreamed of, the Atlanta that my great-great Grandparents dreamed of when they came here looking for opportunity, the Atlanta that my uncle dreamed of when he employed people throughout this community, and the Atlanta that Joyce Shepard worked so hard to achieve.”
“We are one step closer to achieving ‘One Atlanta’ and we’re doing it because we are all working together.”
