Atlanta City Councilman Michael Julian Bond wants to create a website to help residents find affordable housing.
Bond recently introduced a resolution urging the creation of a website connecting Atlantans to affordable housing listings. He wants the City Planning Department to discuss the website’s feasibility with the council’s Community Development/Human Services Committee before May 31. The resolution was referred to the committee for consideration on Jan. 24.
Bond’s resolution states Boston partners, with third-party companies, could provide up-to-date information on affordable, accessible, senior, veteran, and Section 8 housing in a weekly digest of the most recent listings. Invest Atlanta’s website lists affordable properties within the city. But that list is limited to properties that the city’s economic development agency had a hand in developing.
“There are affordable housing units to be found currently in Atlanta but searching for them can be an overwhelming task, in part because the city does not provide a clearing house for income-restricted and affordable housing opportunities in Atlanta and neighboring communities,” according to Bond’s resolution.
The Atlanta Regional Commission says the city’s affordable housing supply is not keeping up with the region’s population growth. An ARC study revealed last March that metro Atlanta lost nearly 60,000 units renting for less than $1,250 per month over a five-year span before the pandemic hit.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta reports Atlanta housing is unaffordable, and the Atlanta Realtors Association says the city’s median home price rose to $430,000 in May. Nearly half of Atlanta’s neighborhoods experienced rapid increases in housing costs from 2000 to 2017 due to the development boom, according to the Urban Displacement Project.
Bond’s resolution comes as Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens endeavors to build or preserve 20,000 units of affordable housing in eight years. The mayor’s senior policy advisor, Courtney English, told the council last week that the city is on track to reach that goal by 2026.
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