The BeltLine is making the neighborhoods in its path too expensive. Can a proposed inclusive housing bill help?
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Atlanta Journal Constitution
Willoughby Mariano, October 19, 2017
Tag: Affordable Housing
A report from grassroots advocates the Housing Justice League shows evidence that the poor are leaving Atlanta Beltline neighborhoods, even as existing residents say they want to stay.
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Residents Fight for their Communities and Offer Solutions
ATLANTA, October 12, 2017: The Atlanta BeltLine greenway development is displacing low income residents even in neighborhoods that it has not yet touched, says a new report by the Atlanta advocacy group Housing Justice League and Research|Action Cooperative. The Atlanta BeltLine, which will ultimately be a 22-mile loop of green parks, trails, and streetcars circling inside city neighborhoods along discontinued rail beds, is a force for gentrification and displacement of long-time, low-income residents, many of them Black. But it does not have to be that way.
As Alison Johnson, a Peoplestown resident and Housing Justice League member who helped author this report, says,
Communities on the Southside deserve to be a part of the process to shape and determine the neighborhoods where we live. We want the kind of responsible, democratic city building that gives us the best quality of life, not that which is done by and for the wealthy.
Research by the Atlanta community group Housing Justice League and Research|Action Cooperative in the three historically Black neighborhoods of Adair Park, Peoplestown, and Pittsburgh tracks the hopes of the residents for the BeltLine, how they are actually affected by it, and the forces of gentrification that, if left unimpeded, will damage the economic and racial diversity that long-term residents and newcomers alike say is a strength of the area.
The report – BeltLining: Gentrification, Broken Promises, and Hope on Atlanta’s Southside – builds upon a survey, analysis of census data, and a year-long participatory action research project. The researchers found that:
- Residents overwhelmingly want to stay in their neighborhoods,
- Gentrification has already raised property values and displaced people in historically Black neighborhoods not yet touched by BeltLine development, and
- Atlanta failed to enact protections against displacement that have been effective in other parts of the country. It still has time to do so as the BeltLine turns its development eye to more of the historically Black Southside.
The report’s major recommendation is for Atlanta BeltLine Inc., the public-private partnership leading the development, and the City as a whole, to embrace more democratic planning processes so that the interests of current residents are incorporated into development, and the supportive networks among neighbors are protected and appreciated.
Atlanta BeltLine Inc. was launched in 2005, when the Atlanta City Council, Atlanta Public Schools, and Fulton County all empowered a new Atlanta BeltLine Tax Allocation District to fund both parks and housing—only 5,600 units of it affordable—in neighboring areas. The hope of the BeltLine lies in its initial promises: to spur equitable development and to include a robust affordable housing strategy to prevent displacement.
But as Atlanta BeltLine Inc. itself acknowledges, almost midway through the 25-year-long development period, fewer than 1,000 units of affordable housing have been built in the area, far short of the original goal, even as housing prices near the greenways are rising faster than in the city as a whole. This means the area is losing far more existing affordable housing than it is creating. And there are no rent regulations or alternative property tax policies to stop the surge.
Housing Justice League members pressed elected officials to enact policy solutions that protect current residents of gentrifying areas and create more affordable housing.
- Read the Executive Summary.
- Read the Full Report.
- See the Beltline Map.
- See the Data Visualization.
- Profile of Sohna Harneez.
- Profile of Alison Johnson.
- Profile of May Helen Johnson.
- Profile of Rakia Reeves.
Media Coverage:
Research|Action is working with the Housing Justice League on a report about affordable housing around the Beltline in Atlanta, to be released in September. Here’s a one page fact sheet.
ATLANTA (CBS46) – Concern is rising over property values following Atlanta’s popular Beltline as it finishes construction in some of Atlanta’s poorest neighborhoods. CBS46 discovered half a dozen low-income housing workers organizing Wednesday to protect neighbors in southwest Atlanta. The startling popularity of the Beltline is about to arrive in Adair Park. It’s a trail that goes both ways for some who live in the area. Benefits are welcome, but rising property values are feared.
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NOTE: Research|Action has a report coming on this issue in a few months!
Five years ago, the Lofts at Reynoldstown Crossing were intended to be a bulwark against the rising housing costs that were threatening to turn the Atlanta Beltline into a boardwalk for the rich.
Developers spent $5.1 million to transform the aging warehouse in a historically black neighborhood into condos, and Atlanta Beltline Inc., the agency in charge, offered down payment assistance to middle income families to move in.
The nearby stretch of the Beltline remains months away from completion, but a man lugging moving boxes across the condo parking lot on a recent morning was a sign that these new affordable homes are already beginning to vanish. Dr. Elan Jenkins had just purchased a two-bedroom condo at the complex for $340,000, or more than double what it sold for as part of the Beltline’s affordable home program in 2012.
At that price, the condo is out of reach for three quarters of metro Atlanta, according to an analysis performed by real estate data company Zillow. Jenkins thinks it’s only a matter of time before he’s priced out, too.
“Eventually I won’t be able to even live here, probably,” said Jenkins, an Emory physician.
This is exactly what housing experts warned Beltline administrators about years ago, when experts found that their affordable housing spending could come to nothing by its planned 2030 completion unless they changed course. Along with the ribbon of parks, trails and transit, Atlanta Beltline Inc. was supposed to create at least 5,600 affordable houses and apartments — a goal so important that City Council put it into law.
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