Community members and local officials cheered as they cut the ribbon on the Westside’s newest apartment complex, 880 North. (Marlon Hyde/WABE News)
A limited number of affordable housing units and retail spaces are coming to Atlanta’s English Avenue. Community members and local officials cheered Thursday as they cut the ribbon on the Westside’s newest apartment complex, “880 North.”
It features six units on the top two floors and two commercial spaces zoned for restaurants on the bottom. The apartments are income-restricted for people earning between 50% and 80% of the area’s median income.
Community members and local officials cheered as they cut the ribbon on the Westside’s newest apartment complex, 880 North. (Marlon Hyde/WABE News)
“We really want to see small business owners be able to start their brick and mortar journey here in these spaces who want to be a part of this community,” said Rue Bailey Gunter, a representative of Oaks ATL, the Community Development nonprofit that runs this property.
She says that if you drive around the neighborhood, you can see signs all over it showing upcoming housing projects.
“We’re excited to continue to address some community needs that have been mentioned, like having larger spaces for larger families. But we’re right here. Like, English Avenue is our community and our neighborhood, and we wanna serve them well,” said Bailey Gunter.
“When we think about elevation, it’ll be a place where local people from the neighborhood and people who are visiting the West Side will be able to stop by and visit these local businesses, patronize them, and help contribute to revenue, which ultimately helps create jobs in our neighborhood,” added Tiffany Saadiq, an Oaks ATL Board member.
Tiffany Saadiq is an Oaks ATL Board member. She is standing in one of the available units. (Marlon Hyde/ WABE News)
“We need more of 880 Norths. We need more partnerships. We need people committed to housing and committed to providing spaces for food and small businesses on the Westside,” said Saadiq.
The project was made possible through $3 million in investments, including from Invest Atlanta. With the five-year project now complete, Oaks ATL expects this space to create five to ten new jobs.
“We’ve been very intentional when we’re having conversations with the commercial spaces, thinking about how we can provide, whether that’s a coffee shop or some access to food within the community,” said Saadiq. “So I would say more to come on the two businesses that will occupy the space.”
Cassandra Lee, whom everyone in the community knows as “Mama,” has lived here for over three decades. She says that this project will help lower-income families stay in the neighborhood as housing costs rise.
“It’s making it look better than it used to look. This used to be a rough neighborhood. The bluff was rough here. And since they’ve been fixing up and building a lot of stuff, now it’s getting people where they can afford rent and where they can afford a home for their family,” said Lee.
Now, she says, they just need a community center for the kids.
“It is a part of a transformation that’s been taking place in the English Avenue community for quite a while. I’ve been here 46 years,” added Anthony A. W. Motle, senior pastor at Lindsay Street Baptist Church, right across the street from the mixed-use development.
He worries that more people are being pushed to leave because of rising housing costs.
“Current residents, senior persons can’t afford the taxes, and they’re priced out, forced out, and so those are the casualties that we are concerned about,” the pastor said.
He hopes that this development opens the door for increased investment in Atlanta’s English Avenue Community.
“More resources need to be made available even when folks are driven out of the community, priced out, and have to leave. Resources need to be available to those persons in order to relocate them, in order to reestablish them and their children.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens says that over the last four years, his administration has built and preserved close to 14,000 affordable housing units and has set a goal of building or preserving 20,000 units by 2030.
“That’s what the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative is all about, making sure more neighborhoods benefit from Atlanta’s growth, making sure the communities that help build this city are part of where the city is going,” said Dickens.
“English Avenue deserves that, the Westside deserves that, and they deserve all of the best of Atlanta.”
