Fresh Loaf

The demolition of Atlanta's Bowen Homes earlier this month

Atlanta is often, and rightly, seen as being well behind the curve when it comes to anything resembling progress. Trends — be they related to culture, social issues, business or, god knows, politics — typically take a couple of years to filter through here after they’ve already become old news in New York, L.A., London, Seattle or wherever.

In other words, it’s rare to see Atlanta taking a leading role on the national stage. But that’s exactly what’s been going on the past few years as Dr. Renee Glover, director of the Atlanta Housing Authority, has pursued an ambitious plan to make us the first large American to completely do away with public housing projects in favor of rent subsidies for privately owned, mixed-income properties.

Yesterday, the New York Times had a prominent news story that details how Atlanta has set the pace for the rest of the country when it comes to this important aspect of public policy. Quoth the Gray Lady:

Mixed-income developments oriented toward families, with trendy shops, golf courses and Y.M.C.A.’s, are emerging where bleak, uniform towers once stood. Displaced residents are receiving vouchers to move to private housing. And a landmark experiment in housing the urban poor in large government-run facilities that began under the New Deal is being undone.

And, a little later:

“Atlanta’s plan signifies in a very clear way that the social contract that cities and citizens have with the poor has fundamentally changed,” said Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist at Columbia University who studies urban neighborhoods. “We’ve decided that the market can function to create housing and the role of government should be to move people into the market.”

Now, as with any type of progress, the demolition of public housing has its critics. Certainly, the jury is out on whether the voucher program will eventually be regarded as an overwhelming success, as CL’s Mara Shalhoup has previously reported. In fact, the NYT cites Mara’s reporting in noting that “a large majority of displaced residents settle in 10 of Atlanta’s poorest ZIP codes.”

(more…)

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Diane Wright, outside her new apartment

Editor’s note: This is the first in a regular series of commentaries that gives voice to those not commonly heard in Atlanta media.

For nearly two decades, Diane Wright, 63, lived in Hollywood Courts, one of the last public housing projects left in Atlanta. Most of the rest have  been demolished to make way for mixed-income communities. Wright was the longtime president of her residents’ association, as well as president of the group representing all Atlanta housing projects. In that capacity, she was an outspoken critic of the displacement of public housing residents. She also was a business owner under the federal government’s Section 3 program, which provides grants to low-income entrepreneurs.

I’m from Chicago. When I moved, I was in my late 40s. I had went back to school. I got a degree in accounting. One of my girlfriends was living down here, and she told me Atlanta was a great place to live. This was ‘88, ‘89.

I moved into public housing. When I first went there, it was hell. But we got together and formed our organization. And then we started working with the residents. We told the dope boys that we wanted them out of there. We knew most of them. I hired some of them, too. I even asked the housing authority about that. They said that would be a good idea.

[Housing authority officials] always would come to me when they want something done. They wanted a Section 3 [business]. They came to me to start the business. I’ve been hiring people that come out of prison and go into a halfway house. I never had a problem.

All of a sudden, here comes the [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] investigators. They pulled me aside, into the maintenance shop. And then they showed me a picture of this person, and told me he used my address. I used to go with him, and he became a sex offender. He used my address [on Georgia's sex-offender registry], but he used it without me knowing it. The sheriff’s department didn’t come to my house, didn’t check his address or anything.

I’ve never had any problem, nothing with a criminal check or background check. I’ve never been to jail. But still, all of a sudden, they treat me like I’m the criminal.

(more…)

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The Associated Press reports:

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named New York City housing commissioner Shaun Donovan to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, turning to a former Clinton administration aide with a national reputation for developing affordable housing.

Donovan’s appointment was something of a surprise. Most speculation has centered around Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz or Bronx borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr.

Atlanta Housing Authority CEO Renee Glover was rumored to be on a shortlist for the cabinet position.

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Renee Glover, who has overseen the transformation of Atlanta’s public housing complexes into mixed-use communities, is on President-elect Barack Obama’s short list for a cabinet position.

Along with New York City’s housing commissioner and Miami’s mayor, among others, Atlanta Housing Authority Executive Director Glover is being considered for secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Glover has won nationwide acclaim — and some criticism — for using HUD’s HOPE VI program to tear down public housing and replace it with communities that reduce crime and improve neighborhoods. The improvements to the lives of the former residents, however, have been questioned.

Here are the contenders for HUD secretary:

• Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
• Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.
• Renee Glover, head of Atlanta’s housing authority
• Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies
• Shaun Donovan, commissioner of New York City’s housing department.

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East Lake Meadows, in the midst of demolition.

Atlanta was the first city in the country to build a public housing project. By 2010, it will likely be the first to eradicate every last one of them.

At a high point (literally, though not figuratively), the number of public housing units in Atlanta numbered more than 14,000. If all goes according to plan, there soon will be none — aside from a handful of apartments for the elderly and infirm. Most of the Atlanta Housing Authority’s projects already have been replaced by mixed-income communities, which do wonders for reducing crime and improving neighborhoods. But they don’t offer the same assistance to the down-and-out that the AHA projects did.

The big question about this massive urban renewal initiative has been: What happened to all the low-income families who lived in public housing? Did the vouchers they received, for reduced rent, help better their lives? There is some evidence that suggests that many former resident’s lives were, in fact, improved.

Researchers at Georgia State University are trying to find out if that’s true.

(more…)

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It’s one thing for a public agency to argue in support of a cause, says a honest-government watchdog group. It’s another to contribute cash, however.

Common Cause Georgia yesterday filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission against several public agencies — including the Atlanta Housing Authority, Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District — that allege the groups contributed nearly $125,000 to Georgians for Community Redevelopment, a booster group that is campaigning in favor of Amendment 2 on the General Election Ballot.

A successful passage of Amendment 2 would allow school boards to participate in tax allocation districts, a somewhat controversial redevelopment mechanism that uses future increases in property taxes to pay off bonds sold to build infrastructure in blighted areas. TADs have been used throughout the state since 1985 — most notably at Atlantic Station. In February, however, the state Supreme Court ruled that the use of educational funds — in this case, the school’s portion of property taxes — for redevelopment purposes violated the state Constitution.

“Common Cause Georgia fully acknowledges the right of the development community to lobby for the passage of this constitutional amendment,” Bill Bozarth of Common Cause Georgia said in a statement. “That is free speech, and we take no issue with that. However, we do take issue with doing so in violation of the law. We are filing our complaint with the State Ethics Commission because we believe that Georgians for Community Development – a campaign committee organized for the purpose of gaining voter approval of Constitutional Amendment 2, has accepted contributions from several public agencies which are clearly prohibited by Georgia statute from contributing to this kind of political activity.”

The AJC has more on the story here.

After the jump, the full release from Common Cause and links to the recently filed complaints.

(more…)

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Two public housing residents filed a housing discrimination complaint yesterday with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development alleging that the Atlanta Housing Authority’s demolition plans for most of its remaining housing projects violates the federal Fair Housing Act.

Atlanta civil rights attorney Lindsay Jones is representing the two women, Shirley Hightower and Diane Wright, who filed the complaint on behalf of the 1,200 families who will soon be displaced from Hollywood Courts, Bankhead Courts, Herndon Homes and Thomasville Heights. Of course, not all of the residents oppose the demolition.

In a press release, Jones claimed, that the housing authority’s decision to give the displaced residents federal vouchers for reduced rent “will steer displaced residents into impoverished and racially segregated neighborhoods, if they will be able to find any housing at all.” That practice, Jones claims, contradicts the housing authority’s promise that “residents will be able to move to better neighborhoods with higher performing schools under the relocation plan.”

According to the complaint, which seeks a federal injunction against the demolitions:

The AHA’s proposed demolition application will displace low income African American households into a metro Atlanta housing market with a significant and growing deficit in fair share housing opportunities.

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Atlanta Housing Authority Executive Director Renee Glover’s longtime wish is about to come true. It appears that four of the city’s last public housing projects — a total 1,200 affordable apartments — will soon come tumbling down.

This morning, the AJC published an op-ed by Glover in which she expressed confidence that Washington would grant permission to raze the few remaining public-housing projects in the city. According to a letter sent to the AHA today from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, permission for all but two of them has been granted. “I am pleased to approve your request to demolish,” the letter states.

In the op-ed, Glover wrote:

We anticipate quick approval for demolition of the remaining major projects: Bankhead Courts, Thomasville Heights, Hollywood Courts, Herndon Apartments, Palmer and Roosevelt. Those projects, together with Bowen, house about 2,400 households – families that can now look to bright futures in good neighborhoods.

When the last of those buildings comes down, we will have made history. (more…)

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I’ve found myself in Clayton County a lot the last two weeks. It’s an interesting place that you’ll hear more about later. But I wanted to take a moment now that Google Maps has canvassed much of metro Atlanta to point out two of the filthiest streets I’ve come across in my recent travels.

The first filthpatch isn’t in Clayton County, but in southeast Atlanta close to the airport. Simon Street is a gem off Ruby Harper Boulevard near the clear-cut remains of Gilbert Gardens Homes, an Atlanta Housing Authority project that closed several years ago. It’s nothing but empty lots. (According to an old AJC article, the former project wasn’t developed because of the airport’s expansion plans.) Follow Simon Street all the way to the back and there’s what should be an accessible road covered with broken glass and overgrown with shrubs and trees. I understand why the Google dudes didn’t drive down it. I did. It wasn’t very roomy, scenic or relaxing. The most ideal place in metro Atlanta to dispose of a body: Simon Street.

Old McDonough Road appears to be right on the DeKalb/Clayton border. I’m sure the talks between counties to decide who cleans it up are very cordial — maybe that’s why it’s in such terrible shape. It’s basically a steep road that’s littered with garbage. One part is so nasty you have to swerve around the clutter in the streets.

Both of these streets have signs that state dumping is prohibited and punishable by a fine and/or jail. Either they’re not working or were only recently posted.

Google covered most of the metro region. If you know of a nasty place, look it up and post it or send me a screenshot. Together — and with the aid of Google — we can gripe about our city.

(Screenshots from Google Street View)

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Atlanta City Councilwoman Felicia Moore introduced legislation calling for council oversight of the city’s involvement in the Atlanta Housing Authority’s plans to demolish public housing.

“[This] ordinance is to make sure in the future it’s clear by code there’s an understanding the Council is the governing authority of the City . . . ”
— Moore, as quoted in Atlanta Progressive News Jan. 7

“We respectfully submit that, because of the legally mandated autonomous operation of the AHA, these items of legislation are beyond the City’s authority and purview.”
— Attorney Sharon Gay, of McKenna Long & Aldridge, in a Jan. 14 letter to Atlanta City Council

“This is a blatant, purposeful media campaign to discredit me because they don’t like this legislation.”
— Moore, as quoted in the AJC, in response to a comment by AHA spokesman Rick White alleging that Moore worries demolishing public housing in her council district would move her supporters out of her district

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By Matthew Cardinale

Atlanta Housing Authority’s plan to destroy all remaining Atlanta public-housing communities in the city is a massive atrocity that will tragically displace families, destroy communities, decrease Atlanta’s affordable housing supply and eliminate a precious safety net we’re going to continue needing for some time.

Make no mistake, developers are salivating over this land, and that’s what this is all about. AHA’s role is to confuse, distract and deceive the people of Atlanta, especially the residents, that somehow tearing down public housing is the best thing, even the only thing, possible.

Most Atlanta residents don’t realize that when 5,500 public-housing units are removed from a city’s housing stock, those people are either pushed into the low-income rental market – either here or in the suburbs – or into homeless shelters.

That means those of us who are already struggling with housing-cost burden – i.e., monthly fear of coming up short on rent — due to the critical lack of affordable housing in Atlanta will now have around 5,500 fewer units to compete for.

Yes, you may say, but the new “mixed-income, mixed-use developments” will surely contain affordable housing, won’t they? AHA implies this, but its definition of “affordable” comes from a parallel universe.

To most people, affordable means what’s actually affordable to working people in terms of how much they earn and what their other costs of living are.

Instead, AHA’s Renee Glover calculates housing policy based on the Area Median Income (AMI). For a family in 2000, the Atlanta AMI was over $55,000.

(more…)

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