An Atlanta Civic Circle investigation last week found that the city of Atlanta relocated over one-quarter—51 out of 188 households—from the southside’s condemned Forest Cove Apartments to what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls “dangerous dwellings”—complexes with a history of crime and substandard living conditions.
This finding shows the challenges that Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration faces in trying to decently house the city’s lowest-income residents. Because Atlanta rents are so high, complexes like Forest Cove, which the U.S. Department of Housing (HUD) subsidizes through Section 8 vouchers, are often low-income renters’ only options—and these too are in short supply. When conditions deteriorate, other options are scarce.
In a 20-minute interview with Atlanta Civic Circle on April 14, Dickens provided an exclusive preview of the city’s launch of the Safe and Secure Housing initiative to crack down on negligent landlords and improve living conditions for tenants—although he and his office did not provide details about how it will help people who have trouble finding or staying in stable housing.
He also said the city will unveil a plan in May to revitalize Thomasville Heights, where Forest Cove is located, by building over 1,000 affordable housing units on city-owned land at the corner of Moreland Avenue and McDonough Boulevard—across the street from the now-shuttered Thomasville Heights Elementary School.
And the mayor addressed how much enforcement leverage the city has with negligent landlords renting to low-income tenants—including Forest Cove’s Ohio-based owner, Millennia Housing Management. Many of the company’s apartment complexes are HUD-subsidized.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Atlanta Civic Circle: Why did Forest Cove fall apart? Joshua Humphries, your senior housing advisor, attributes it to “decades of public…
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