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How Atlanta Beltline affordable housing funds created a $340,000 condo

Housing along the Beltline is out of reach for many owners or renters, and the Beltline has fallen far below goals to create affordable housing.

Credit: Willoughby Mariano

Credit: Willoughby Mariano

Housing along the Beltline is out of reach for many owners or renters, and the Beltline has fallen far below goals to create affordable housing.
By
July 17, 2017

The Lofts at Reynoldstown Crossing along Atlanta's Beltline were supposed to be a bulwark against housing prices that experts predicted would rise along the ribbon of parks, trails and transit. The price to taxpayers: About $5 million.

Just five years after the motorcycle warehouse was converted to condos, there are signs this affordable housing is already vanishing, even though the nearby portion of the trail has yet to be built. A single two-bedroom condo there sold recently for $340,000—a price that is out of reach for a vast majority of metro Atlanta residents.

Seniors on fixed incomes are struggling to pay skyrocketing taxes. Working families said they have moved away. And now even well-paid professionals are worried luxury Beltline development will drive them off.

This is the story of how the agency mandated to create affordable housing along one of the nation's most ambitious urban redevelopment projects has failed to heed a decade of warnings that this would happen. Read it on MyAJC.com: How the Atlanta Beltline broke its promise on affordable housing.

About the Author

Willoughby Mariano is an investigative reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she focuses on housing and criminal justice issues. She previously worked for the AJC's PolitiFact Georgia, where she fact checked the claims of elected officials, and at the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered crime and breaking news.

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