The city’s comprehensive, neighborhood-focused housing strategy focuses on identifying properties and land that can be repurposed for housing and encouraging development in underserved neighborhoods.

New research from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Data-Smart City Solutions project analyzed how the city of Atlanta uses a neighborhood-based approach and data to improve its housing services and preserve affordable housing in the city.
As Jabari Simama explains in a piece for Governing, “Harvard identified four key components of Atlanta’s approach: collaboration across sectors, identifying developable properties, strengthening governance and planning for the future.”
According to the Atlanta mayor’s chief policy officer, Courtney English, the city’s approach to housing focuses on “neighborhood health” in some of the city’s most distressed neighborhoods. A group called the Affordable Housing Strike Force, which includes leaders from the housing authority, a land bank, the school district, the city’s transportation department, and nonprofits, was created to coordinate efforts. “The strike force identified approximately 2,000 undeveloped acres that could be repurposed for housing, categorizing the properties on factors such as development readiness, remediation needs and proximity to transit.”
In three years, the city built 7,000 new housing units and has 4,000 more in the pipeline. The city is also acquiring office buildings to convert to housing and is creatively using city-owned properties to add housing. “When asked what he would say to public officials who believe this model wouldn’t work in their cities, English pointed to the long-term cost of inequity — that economic stability depends on building and maintaining a strong middle class and preventing widespread poverty and violence that drive residents out of a city.”
FULL STORY: Atlanta's Housing Approach Offers a Model for Other Cities

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
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