Innovating in Atlanta: A Social Housing Model for the US

Cities across the United States are struggling with challenging housing markets and a dearth of affordable housing. In response, leaders are creating innovative solutions to build more housing and preserve affordable units. In Atlanta, under the direction of Mayor Andre Dickens and his Affordable Housing Strike Force, the city is committed to building or preserving 20,000 units over 8 years. A main factor in this work is bringing together all the people and organizations doing housing work under this mission and coordinating available land to address the lack of safe, affordable housing. 

Courtney English, chief policy officer and senior advisor to Mayor Dickens, spoke about the city’s move toward a social housing model. While there isn’t a singular definition of social housing, it is an “umbrella term for rental housing owned and managed by social landlords.” This is different from the traditional American model of public housing, which is reserved for low-income individuals and families and managed by federally-granted housing agencies. English talked with Data-Smart to outline Atlanta’s new housing model, the successes they’ve already seen, and how other cities can replicate it. He also shared lessons for other cities interested in establishing a development corporation in the social housing model.

Step 1: Bring Everyone Together

According to English, the first step was bringing together everyone who is working on housing and housing-related topics, from quasi-government agencies and nonprofits to land banks and trusts to community foundations. In Atlanta this includes the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA), the Atlanta Land Trust, the Transportation Department, the Development Authority, the Atlanta Public School System, the State Department of Community Affairs, the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta and the Metro Atlanta Land Bank. Together, this group became the Affordable Housing Strike Force, established in May 2022. While Mayor Dickens maintains authority over many of the groups doing this work, they had yet to all come together under a central umbrella with other local organizations.

Creating the Strike Force not only increased coordination among folks working toward a common goal, it also meant pooling resources. Some of those resources were tangible, like cash and land, but some were things like tax incentives, zoning power, and data. 

Step 2: Consolidate the Dirt

An analysis of the group's physical resources found roughly 2,000 undeveloped acres of land across all participating agencies and organizations. That land was then divided into four categories, based on factors like readiness to develop, need for remediation, and location near transit. Once the land was assessed and categorized, the city began to work on the first category, pulling together the capital and setting up requests for proposal (RFPs) to begin the building process.  

One of the interesting things they found was land that was technically being used by the city but, according to English, wasn’t the best use of space. For example, there was a patch of land where the city stored new trash bins for dispersal; decades ago, when the city built the storage, the area was solely industrial. Now, as neighborhoods had built up around it, that land was ripe for housing development. The city is relocating the bins and plans to use the space for housing.

Step 3: Strong Government Leadership 

Next, the city took on the governance work required to accomplish the building and preservation of housing. Aspects of the process under local purview, like zoning, tax abatements, contracting, and subsidies required the strong leadership from the Mayor and other leaders. The power of the city government allowed things to move more quickly; for example, the city could enact the entitlement process and tax abatements, so any developers looking to build quickly were happy to work with the city. In just three years they delivered 7,000 units with 4,000 more to come to market.

These units are across all income levels, but there has been a focus on rapid housing for the city’s homeless population; within five months, a development built from repurposed shipping containers provided 42 units, with three more in the pipeline. The city’s goal is to house the downtown homeless population by 2026. The city has also purchased an office for a planned office-to-housing conversion, which will be the largest in the southeastern United States. Another creative way to increase units using city land is the recent addition of housing on top of a city fire station. 

Step 4: Set Up for the Future

According to English, the fourth piece is one of the most unique aspects of this work. A year into this work, the city began to look at specific, underdeveloped corridors that were shackled with “bad zoning policies,” despite being city-owned land or land that could be purchased. English and his team realized that they needed a different approach to accelerate that key corridor land development; a legal, organizing entity that had capital to get projects done. This entity would focus on the public-owned land that’s owned by multiple different organizations or departments that are all under the city umbrella, which English called “concentrated ownership.” In 2023, the city founded the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation (AUD), a nonprofit subsidiary of the Housing Authority, that is “capable of leading the redevelopment of public land into marketable, mixed income housing that is attractive and attainable to tenants of all income levels.” Funding for this came from a $100 million bond for affordable housing from the City Council, and an additional $240 million is philanthropic affordable housing fund, housed at Atlanta’s Community Foundation. 

Sitting under the city Housing Authority, the AUD is technically a subsidiary, which means it can bring abatement and other city power to deals. This is similar to the social housing model, since the city puts cash into a deal over a two-to-four year period, then gets cash back from the housing and is able to continue the cycle. These units, built in the European model, are purposefully designed to blend in with an existing neighborhood rather than stand out as traditional American public housing. Montgomery County, Maryland, is the only other municipality that the Atlanta team found doing this type of development corporation in the US.   

Recommendations

• Coordination is key. English emphasized that the first step is the most important. Gathering all housing groups and organizations together to assess what tools everyone has and inventory land is critical, and ensures that everyone moves forward in an efficient, coordinated way. 
• Preserve where you can. “You can’t build your way out of a housing crisis alone,” said English, “and the most cost-effective housing is the housing that already exists.” Leaders in Atlanta have focused on preserving current housing by working with landlords to revitalize units. If an older Class B or C apartment is worn down, the city provides an incentive to work with them by bringing debt equity to help cover the costs of improvements.
• Work with legacy residents. Another important piece of preserving housing is allocating money for owner-occupied rehab. This helps legacy residents stay in their homes and prevents displacement, particularly for older adults. In Atlanta, some of this work was done in conjunction with private donors; for example, the filmmaker, philanthropist and local studio owner Tyler Perry donated $750,000 to help pay off property back taxes for low-income seniors.   
• Use sticks and carrots. For situations where a landlord isn’t willing to improve neglected buildings or unhealthy living conditions, the city can now utilize a “blight tax” to incentivize improvements. The city has also, in extreme cases, used “blight condemnation” to relocate residents from a dangerous building and place a lien on the land.