Newly published research at Georgia State University found that rental properties in historically Black, lower-income neighborhoods are mostly locally owned by absentee landlords in whiter, more affluent neighborhoods. But the rental properties in those more affluent neighborhoods are largely owned by landlords outside of the region and even the state of Georgia.
“ That is the kind of dynamic that we maybe tend to think of when we think of absentee ownership,” said Taylor Shelton, an associate professor in the department of geosciences. “But the pattern is essentially reversed when we’re looking at the flows of wealth out of our working-class Black neighborhoods here in Atlanta.”
The researchers reviewed more than 250,000 property records within the City of Atlanta. Among the city’s residential properties, Shelton said 28% are owned by someone living outside of the neighborhood where the property is located, while also making up 77% of all non-owner-occupied properties within Atlanta.
He also said this figure is likely an undercount, as it doesn’t include the total number of residential units on a given property, such as an apartment building.
“ What we were really trying to do with this paper is think about the way that absenteeism maybe doesn’t require crossing those jurisdictional boundaries to have the same essential nature of being an extractive process, where property in one place is really controlled, and the wealth flows out of it to another place,” Shelton said.
