An Affordable Housing Plan Takes Shape in Atlanta

"[Atlanta] Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced a plan today to steer city policy around affordable housing, targeted at fulfilling the 2017 campaign promise she made of $1 billion toward the issue," reports Sonam Vashi.

"The plan builds on the work of HouseATL, a group of public and private housing developers and advocates who released a plan for Mayor Bottoms’s approval last August, though there are many details still to come," adds Vashi.

Vashi lists the big takeaways from the current iteration of the city's affordable housing plan, called the "One Atlanta Housing Affordability Action Plan," which includes creating or preserving 20,000 affordable homes by 2026, developing currently vacant city-owned land, identifying more funds for affordable housing projects and programs, and potentially also revising the city's zoning code.

On that last matter, Vashi says both an inclusionary zoning ordinance and zoning change changes that allow missing middle density instead of just single-family residential development could both be on the table.