For the city of Atlanta to properly fund the affordable housing trust it created in late 2021, it should allocate nearly $12 million—or 1.5%—of the $790 million proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year that starts July 1.
So says the Atlanta City Council ordinance that created the trust, which is the only line item in the draft budget specifically designated for affordable housing.
But the draft budget released May 1 calls for only an $8 million infusion—or about 1% of the total. That exceeds the $7 million initially allocated this year by some 15%, but falls well short of the annual funding expectations laid out in the ordinance.
In a joint statement emailed to Atlanta Civic Circle on Wednesday, the city’s chief financial officer, Mohamed Balla, and Dickens’ senior housing advisor, Joshua Humphries, blamed that on inflation.
Balla and Humphries highlighted in the statement that the $8 million earmarked in the FY24 budget is still an increase over the $7 million FY23 allocation, adding that the housing trust fund—which includes money from the Gulch redevelopment deal—currently contains $26 million for existing city of Atlanta programs, such as owner-occupied rehab, anti-displacement tax relief, and public land development for housing.
They also said the city is funding affordable housing through a proposed new $100 million bond issuance awaiting the city council’s approval—and that there’s also $94 million still available from a 2021 Housing Opportunity Bond.
The legislative language matters
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens almost didn’t fund the trust at all last year, until housing advocates and constituents pressured him to allocate the $7 million for FY23, saying they didn’t want to see any affordable housing funding source shortchanged. They still don’t.
The 2021 measure funding the affordable housing trust was sponsored by most of Atlanta’s 15 city…
Read the full article here
