Westside Housing Organizations Promote “Deep Affordability”

Philanthropic, governmental and community efforts are underway in the west Atlanta neighborhoods of English Avenue, Vine City, Ashview Heights and the Atlanta University Center that are designed to encourage growth of a residential market that includes ample “deeply affordable housing,” i.e., housing whose costs take up 50 percent or less of the metro Atlanta area median income (AMI),which HUD determined to be $74,800 for a family of four in 2018.
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Deep affordability is a necessity for encouraging/enabling lower-income legacy residents to remain in, as well as come back to, west Atlanta neighborhoods proximate to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where property values are appreciating — resulting in rising property taxes and increasing rents, notes John Ahmann, president and CEO of Westside Future Fund (WFF).

Partner Perspectives
Other organizations working with WFF to promote affordability in Westside neighborhoods include Quest Community Development Organization, which develops affordable housing and provides needs-based community services to underserved individuals and families.
In addition to having its own stock of buildings, Quest works with third-party landlords to house residents, who are marginally housed or risk being displaced, that have been referred through the At-Promise Center, an initiative of the Atlanta Police Foundation and WFF that aids youths who have been arrested and their families.
“Some of these homes that we are using are for youth aging out of foster care,” notes Quest Communities President and CEO Leonard L. Adams Jr., “while others are for families at risk of being displaced because of the improvements being made on the Westside that are causing some landlords to raise rent.”

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