It was an Atlanta Housing Authority board meeting like none other in recent memory.
Eugene Jones, AHA’s president and CEO, announced during the July 26 board meeting that Atlanta had received an unprecedented $40 million Choice grant to revitalize the Bowen Homes neighborhood.
A loud applause broke out from participants at the meeting.
It’s been a long time coming.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will revitalize 74 acres that used to be the Bowen Homes public housing project – a community that’s been abandoned for nearly 13 years.
Jones said the development will consist of 2,000 total units, including 1,800 rental units and 200 for sale units.
Forty-one percent of the units – 825 – will be affordable for families earning up to 80 percent of area median income (AMI). That is the measure HUD uses to define affordability.
An official check presentation with HUD officials is planned for Wednesday, Aug. 3 after 1 p.m.
The announcement was cause for celebration – not only because of the Choice grant but for several other developments that occurred during the board meeting.
• The board approved the financial plan to consummate the closing of Herndon Square II – a multi-phase, mixed-use, mixed-income development that ultimately will consist of 716 units off Northside Drive. The first phase of the project of 97 senior housing units was completed in 2021. The $78 million second phase of the project will include 201 units with deep affordability: 40 units at 30 percent AMI; 84 units at 60 percent AMI; 46 units at 80 percent AMI and 30 market rate units. A third phase – Herndon III – will consist of 180 units, and that could come before the board at its September meeting.
- The board also approved the financial transaction to consummate the closing of Englewood Phase IB. The 30.4-acre site at 505 Englewood Ave. in Southeast Atlanta formerly contained 324 public housing units. The authority approved the funding for 160 affordable senior rental units on a 2.3-acre site with a total project cost of $70 million.
- Jones also announced that on July 21, AHA fully executed a master developer agreement with the Michaels Organization, Republic Companies and Sophy Capital to redevelop the Civic Center site, which will consist of 1,507 total units, including 590 affordable units and 917 market-rate units – meaning 39 percent of the units will be affordable.
At one point during the meeting, board member Sarah Kirsch observed: “We are looking at a lot of deals. That’s a good thing.”
Board chairman Larry Stewart agreed. “We are going to be turning a lot of dirt,” he said.
After Jones announced the $40 million Bowen grant, board member Duriya Farooqui said: “Gene, I want to congratulate you and the whole housing authority staff in getting the $40 million grant.” She then added: “The projects we have approved today are a testament to the mayor’s vision for affordable housing.”
Jones responded, reinforcing that sentiment, saying: “We have a great mayor – Andre Dickens.” He added the authority is well on its way of meeting the challenge to add 10,000 affordable housing units – half of the mayor’s eight-year goal of 20,000 new affordable housing units in the City of Atlanta.
“Bowen Choice Neighborhood will be transformative for Northwest Atlanta, bringing affordable homes and a vibrant neighborhood back to the community,” Dickens stated in a press release. “Atlanta Housing and all the members of our Affordable Housing Strike Force came together with community members to lay the groundwork for this funding. Thank you to the Biden Administration, Senator (Jon) Ossoff, Senator (Raphael) Warnock and Congresswoman (Nikema) Williams for bringing these funds home to rebuild one of our city’s most important and resilient communities.”
This is the second Choice Neighborhood grant the City of Atlanta has received. In September 2015, the housing authority received a $30 million Choice grant to revitalize the area of the former University Homes, the nation’s first public housing project for African Americans. The grant was meant to uplift three neighborhoods: Atlanta University Center, Ashview Heights and Vine City.
“I can’t think of any city that’s gotten two Choice awards,” Jones said, adding Atlanta’s Bowen grant received the highest score Atlanta has ever gotten from HUD. “We will leverage that $40 million to create about a half-billion-dollar investment over the next 10 years.”
All the activity at Wednesday’s AHA board meeting was a far cry from the past 15 years – a period during which there was limited development of new affordable housing units by the authority. Instead, the authority had focused much of its resources in subsidizing rents for low-income people.
When Dickens took office, he revamped the AHA board and now all the city-appointed authority members are new. It dovetails with his priority to significantly increase the number of affordable housing units in the city. At Wednesday’s meeting, it was clear AHA was working to fulfill one of the mayor’s top priorities.
“It’s showtime,” Jones said in an interview after the board meeting. “Now we are showing that with the resources we have, with our great staff and the leadership at the mayor’s office and our board, we are moving fast and in a hurry. There’s an urgency to get affordable housing built and to also develop a robust home ownership program.”
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