Dear city, state, and county lawmakers,

After months of research on the best affordable housing practices used by cities around the country, the Housing Justice League puts forward our policy package on affordable housing. We were motivated to develop policy in response to rapid gentrification we saw in the Beltline corridor, but quickly realized the whole city was being affected.

Atlanta is experiencing a housing crisis, rapidly losing affordable housing. A 2018 study found that between 2010 and 2014, the number of units with rents of $500 or less declined by 17% and those with rents of $500-$750 declined by 16%. Meanwhile, luxury units, with rents of $1,500 or more, climbed by a whopping 56%. These trends have only accelerated exponentially in the recent years. The same difficulties afflict low-income homeowners. With the median property value in Fulton county rising by 28% in 2018 alone, low-income homeowners are increasingly unable to pay their taxes and ultimately forced to sell and move from their homes. Without innovative policy, these changes in the market are leading to displacement of long-time low and middle-income residents and the transformation of neighborhoods into exclusive, wealthy enclaves.

In her campaign, current mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms promised $1 billion for affordable housing development, with half coming from public and half from private sources. As of April 2020, the Bottoms' administration claims to have moved $250 million from both sources toward the development or preservation of 3,500 affordable units. Half way through her term, Bottoms is not even close to being on track to meet her $1 billion promise. Furthermore, as critics have pointed out, the money counted by her administration is almost exclusively federal and state money that was already slotted for affordable housing development. As housing expert and Georgia State professor Dan Immergluck puts it, there's nothing happening now “that wasn't going on before she was elected.” And even those meager 3,500 units that have been built or preserved under Bottoms' watch have largely provided housing to those making 60% of the area median income, which in Atlanta means about $45,000 a year for a family of four. With almost a quarter of the city's population living below the poverty line (making $26,000 or less in a family of four), this housing clearly does not begin to meet the affordability needs of the city's poorest.

Though COVID-19 is expected to have dramatic impacts on the economy, the housing market is not predicted to decline as it did in 2008. With property values staying the same, or continuing to rise, affordable housing will continue to be in short and shrinking supply in Atlanta. At the same time, as greater numbers of people suffer economically from the pandemic, the need for affordable housing will grow even greater than it already was. To make matters worse, on April 20, 2020, Atlanta announced that due to COVID related budget shortfalls it will put on hold legislation that would have created a $200 million bond for affordable housing land acquisition.

Now is the time to double down on our commitment to affordable housing, not to step away. The six policies below will not stop displacement outright, but will lessen its impacts. Please join with thousands of Atlantans and sign your support today. Gentrification is not inevitable. Stopping it is a matter of political will and taking a stand for housing justice.

1. In violation of its own legal definitions of affordable housing (General Ordinance 54-1), the city often counts housing units as “affordable” that target middle, rather than low, income people. We demand a policy to ensure that only units which meet the city's existing definitions can count toward affordability goals or be eligible for city subsidies. Additionally, we demand that the length requirement for affordable housing be expanded to 50 years for rental units and 30 years for home owners.

2. While there is a shortage of affordable housing in Atlanta, the city owns a large amount of vacant property. We demand an expansion of ordinance 18-O-1493 to move vacant properties into affordable housing development, as well as a revolving loan fund to support housing developers' use of this land.

3. Many renters are displaced when their apartment complexes are sold to be demolished, upgraded, or converted into condos. We demand an ordinance similar to Washington D.C.'s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act that would require landlords of complexes of 5 or more units to offer their buildings for sale to their residents (in the form of a tenants association) before selling them on the market.

4. As home values rise, property tax becomes unaffordable for many Atlantans. We demand a policy that caps the property tax rate for homeowners with low and moderate incomes.

5. For-profit housing management has few incentives to maintain affordable rents as market rates rise. Therefore, we demand per-unit tax breaks for landlords who are willing to continue renting units at affordable rates.

6. Since 2008, rents across the city have climbed exponentially, displacing untold numbers of residents. We demand city-wide rent control that keeps rent increases to manageable levels to keep people in their homes.

Read the full policy package here.