The Atlanta Housing Authority has approved a $453.3 million budget for the fiscal year 2026, decreasing its spending plan by $80.6 million — a 15% reduction — in response to potential federal funding cuts.
The Atlanta Housing Board of Commissioners approved the new budget June 25. A housing authority news release does not mention the decrease.
Instead, officials pointed at investments to expand housing assistance and build and preserve more affordable housing. The budget allocates a $274 million investment in housing subsidies for 22,000 households; $104.4 million for the development or preservation of about 2,500 units; and $1.9 million for resident services.
It’s worth noting that the fiscal year 2025 budget increased 18% over fiscal year 2024 — the largest jump in the past five years.
All the same, the 2026 budget was approved against a backdrop of uncertainty about how the agency will fund programs for low-income Atlantans in the face of a Trump administration wanting deep cuts to housing programs.
In a statement issued following the board’s approval of the budget, Atlanta Housing CEO Terri Lee mentioned a “shifting federal funding environment,” and said the budget means the agency can “exercise fiscal discipline” while “keeping families housed, creating pathways to self-sufficiency (and) advancing our real estate pipeline.”
Lee’s executive letter included in the full budget suggests the agency is preparing for the reality that less money will flow from Washington.
“The fiscal year 2026 budget recognizes the challenging funding expected from reduced congressional appropriations during the federal fiscal year. Even so, Atlanta Housing will continue to place increased urgency on helping families prosper through the creation and preservation of housing in healthy neighborhoods,” Lee wrote in the letter, dated June 25.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
The 15% contraction is the sharpest single decline in the past five years, and the first time since fiscal year 2023 the agency cut rather than increased its budget, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of the agency’s past five budgets.
“The overall decrease in uses over fiscal year 2025 is primarily in anticipation of significant potential federal funding cuts,” according to the budget book.
According to Atlanta Housing, $423.1 million stems from the housing authority’s participation in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Moving to Work demonstration program. That’s 93% of the budget.
The budget states that $62.5 million will be drawn from the prior year’s Moving to Work funds.
A drawdown of those reserves is not unusual. Atlanta Housing has participated in the program for more than 20 years and has allocated tens of millions of dollars from the reserves in every one of the last five budgets, according to the AJC review.
In fiscal year 2025, for instance, the agency drew down $67 million in Moving to Work funds, $4.5 million more than in the fiscal year 2026 budget.
Atlanta Housing did not respond to questions about how the agency would support its housing and development programs if there were deeper cuts.
The agency also declined an AJC request to interview Lee. Atlanta Housing spokesperson Carolyn A. Smith said the budget “reflects a fiscally responsible approach,” and the authority had reduced spending while “preserving our ability” to keep people in their homes.
Elsewhere in the budget, Atlanta Housing said it wants more low-income families to take advantage of housing vouchers on offer by pushing the utilization rate to 90%. Progress has been made since 2015, according to the budget, when the rate was less than 70%.
“Unfortunately, a tight rental market and increased housing costs continue to adversely impact our utilization rate. As of April 30, 2025, AH’s voucher utilization stood at 82%,” the budget book states.
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