Atlanta Approves Funding for 500 ‘Micro’ Housing Units

“The Invest Atlanta Board of Directors has approved a line of credit up to $7.5 million that will fund so-called rapid housing initiatives in Atlanta, as financed through the city's Housing Opportunity Bond Fund,” reports Josh Green in Urbanize Atlanta. “All units will aim to provide low-barrier alternatives to traditional shelters with access to wraparound services such as healthcare and employment, per city officials.”

The funding is meant to kickstart the building of “flexible communities” with 500 ‘micro’ housing units for unhoused residents. “In August, the city unveiled plans to build temporary homeless housing from former shipping containers on a South Downtown parking lot on Forsyth Street and another on underused property in Mechanicsville—the latter involving a land swap with Atlanta Public Schools.” 

The Forsyth Street location sits near a MARTA transit station. “The strategy calls for using shipping containers—many of them donated by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, following use as temporary COVID-19 hospital facilities—as a relatively cheap, quick means of delivering rapid housing options.”