The city of Atlanta is losing about $1 million that could have been used for affordable housing, according to a Channel 2 Action News Investigation.
The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified the city last month in a letter that it had lost the money because it failed to spend it in time.
The city could have used the money to help low-income residents with rent, buying a home, building a home or rehabilitating one.
HUD awarded the city the $1 million in 2012. It had to spend all of it over the next five years, according to the letter. The letter said the city didn’t produce any adequate justification for failing to meet the deadline, which expired in 2017 before Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms took office.
Bottoms made affordable housing a pillar of her campaign last year.
“This is a huge priority for the mayor and we’ve got to make sure it never happens again,” Tim Keane, commissioner of city planning, told Channel 2. “Part of the issue is having a longer, deeper pipeline of projects to ensure that the money is getting out the door on time.”