The Atlanta City Council on Wednesday passed legislation to put another $3.5 million from the city’s general fund into its affordable housing trust—but recent tweaks to the proposal enable the city to rethink that commitment if fiscal challenges arise.
Authored by Councilmember Jason Dozier and backed by 13 of the city’s 15 legislators, the ordinance materialized from the fact that Dickens’ $8 million allocation from the Fiscal Year 2024 budget fell short of meeting the goals enumerated in the legislation that created the housing trust fund.
The 2021 ordinance that formed the dedicated purse called for 1.5% of the general fund—or $11.5 million of the $790 million budget—to go into the trust in FY24, with a full 2% committed from FY25 and onward. Dickens’ office told Atlanta Civic Circle last month that inflation had limited how much the city could funnel into the account this year.
Emphasizing that the city is on solid financial footing, Dozier’s legislation aims to fill that $3.5 million delta. But it also gives the city an out, thanks to a caveat adopted during the council’s June 28 Finance and Executive Committee meeting. The city will properly fund the housing trust “on the condition that the city is not projecting a deficit at the close of the second quarter ending Dec. 31, 2023,” the amended legislation says.
The city’s chief financial officer, Mohamed Balla, worked with Dozier to get that clause inserted into the legislation. “Those guard rails were put in place because when we allocate general fund dollars, they are general fund dollars across the board, and they compete with all our city priorities,” Balla said. “So, as inflation takes a toll, it impacts everything that we do at the city of Atlanta.”
The city today is sitting on an uncommitted fund balance of over $240 million, but Dozier’s legislation puts the $3.5 million allocation on hold until the…
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