From The Projects To Section 8

"The Atlanta Housing Authority has a sweeping plan to get rid of virtually all the city's traditional public housing facilities. Jonesboro South is one of five that are being cleared out this year. In the coming years, seven more - including the notorious Bankhead Courts and Bowen Homes - will close and be replaced by market-rate, mixed-income communities like Centennial Place, the Villages of East Lake and the Village at Castleberry Hill."

"Renee Glover, executive director of the Atlanta Housing Authority, said that in the end, traditional public housing will have all but vanished in Atlanta with the exception of a dozen senior citizen towers and two very small conventional properties currently tucked away in residential areas."

"'That will not, however, mean that the Housing Authority is abandoning its mission to provide great housing opportunity for people in Atlanta,' Glover said. 'We are doing it differently, providing better outlets for families.'"

"Rather than concentrating low-income people in specified areas and housing, the agency is giving displaced families Section 8 vouchers, which pay a portion of rent for a private apartment or house the family finds on its own."