Atlanta Launching Affordable Housing Development Program for City-Owned Land

"For the first time, the city of Atlanta is launching a program to take land it owns and convert it into affordable housing," reports J.D. Capelouto.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the new program in a statement, touting the potential of city-owned land as an untapped resource to contribute to the efforts of the One Atlanta: Housing Affordability Action Plan.

The program will start with four sites, identified by the Atlanta Department of City Planning after an inventory of publicly owned property. The planning department's inventory "found that the city, the Beltline, Metro Atlanta Land Bank, Atlanta Housing and Invest Atlanta own a total of 877 acres of land over 490 parcels that could be turned into housing," according to Capelouto. The four sites include three single-family properties in southwest Atlanta and an apartment building downtown.

The city will work with Invest Atlanta to develop the apartment site across from Atlanta City Hall downtown. The three single-family properties with be developed with the Metro Atlanta Land Bank under a community land trust model. Each of the single-family houses planned for development will include accessory dwelling units, adds Capelouto.