Mayor Andre Dickens promoted himself as the “Housing Mayor” when he campaigned to be the 61st leader of Atlanta. Since taking office, he pledged to provide 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030.
According to Dickens, “Atlanta is a group project,” and Atlanta Housing is among those invested in the project. The latest reports from the city claim 11,000 units have been completed or are under construction since 2022.
The effort is funded by $300 million from a Housing Opportunity Bond, plus private and philanthropic matching funds. However, Atlanta Housing President and CEO Terri M. Lee told Host Rose Scott on “Closer Look,” the project needs more capital.
“What we’re seeing now is that we have deals on the table that have the equity, that have the tax credits, that have the subsidy, rental subsidy from Atlanta Housing, and you’re still looking at significant gaps, and that significant gap from a financial standpoint is upwards of $5 to $10 million,” said Lee. “And that’s because construction costs are increasing. Insurance costs are high, labor costs is increasing. Everything is moving faster than we can actually move to keep up with it. So new financing tools are really critical to make sure that we cannot just create new affordable housing, but really preserve what we already have.”
Lee shared her concerns that the city is facing a 22,000 shortfall of affordable housing units, in addition to losing 1,000 units each year. She said the only way to address this issues is by increasing the supply and building more properties.
