A controversial plan to build 42 apartments for people experiencing homelessness in Reynoldstown is advancing, despite pushback from neighborhood leaders. Construction could kick off as soon as December, the developer told Atlanta Civic Circle this week.
But Stryant Investments’ 111 Moreland Avenue project, which will replace an old, vacant single-family home where the bustling thoroughfare intersects Kirkwood Avenue, has undergone a few tweaks since community members first voiced their disapproval, according to Joshua Humphries, Mayor Andre Dickens’ chief housing advisor.
To address the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League’s concerns that the 42-unit apartment building would be too dense for the 0.38-acre site, the city of Atlanta worked with Stryant to increase the number of kitchens and the amount of communal space, “to make the project better for residents,” Humphries said in an interview. (Future residents will rent rooms with kitchenettes, while sharing full kitchens, laundry facilities, and communal spaces.)
But reducing the unit count, as the neighborhood group recommended, was fiscally just not in the cards, he added: “In order for the project to be financially viable and to keep all the funding sources intact, it had to keep the unit count at 42.”
Stryant co-founder Stan Sugarman said the affordable housing development will rely on construction loans and grants from the city’s economic development agency, Invest Atlanta; its homeless services provider, Partners For Home; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Federal Home Loan Banks.
Residents will benefit from government-backed rent vouchers provided by the city’s housing authority, Atlanta Housing. That means the 42 intended tenants will only have to pay up to 30% of their monthly income—or nothing, if they don’t make any…
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