A Decade After Demolishing Herndon Homes, Atlanta Begins Redevelopment

But the plans stalled until now.

At the ceremony celebrating the start of construction, the Rev. Kenneth Alexander of Antioch Baptist Church prayed that the promise to the community would be kept.

“We pray that those who originally lived here will be able to come back,” he said.

The new development at the Herndon Homes site, called Herndon Square, is expected to open in the spring of next year, but the roughly 100 affordable units will be for seniors only.

The full development with another 200 affordable units and nearly 400 priced at market rate won’t be completed until 2026.

The housing authority’s new director, Eugene Jones Jr., said the former residents can still return then if they meet the agency’s requirements.

“Every one of those residents, they have first right to first refusal. If they’re in good standing and so forth, they can come right on back,” Jones said.

The Atlanta Housing Authority demolished all of the city’s public housing in the years after the 1996 Olympics. Herndon Homes is just one of several projects that the agency never rebuilt.

In the meantime, over the last decade, rents in the metro area have increased by nearly 50 percent, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who campaigned on a promise to create more affordable housing, said she wants to see the other public housing sites redeveloped quickly.

She said that was her charge to Jones when he took on his role in the authority a few months ago.

“He’s assured me that not only will it be within my term but we can do it within a year,” Bottoms said. “So I’m holding him to that.”