Atlanta lost 232K affordable housing units from 2018 to 2023

Driving the news: Those numbers were revealed Thursday at the latest Atlanta Regional Housing Forum, where leaders from the city of Atlanta and Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties shared what they are doing to stem the tide in their communities.

By the numbers: Between 2018 and 2023, the metro area lost 54,241 units that rented for $800 or less and another 178,108 where rent was priced between $800 and $1,500.

• Units where rents start at $1,500 grew by a startling 258,081 during that five-year period, Atlanta Regional Commission executive director Anna Roach outlined in a presentation.
• Wages are not keeping up with rising home prices, she added.
• "This is an inflection point for us in metro Atlanta," Roach told the audience, adding while the city of Atlanta has led on affordable housing, the rest of the region also needs to tackle this task.

Metro Atlanta is expected to see 1.8 million people move to the area by 2050 and according to the ARC, the region will need to build around 294,000 new units and preserve nearly 41,000 to keep up with the growth.

• "We are building far too little in metro Atlanta to keep up with our growing population," Roach said.

What they're saying: Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who has a target to create or preserve 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030, said the metro region's housing crisis "requires collective action."

• "Our essential workers should be able to live in the communities that they serve," he said. "Our senior citizens should not be priced out of their neighborhoods that they call home for decades."

Zoom in: Gwinnett County used federal COVID relief money to create an affordable housing development fund for households at or below 65% of the area median income (around $55,000), said Matt Elder, the county's housing and community development division director.

• The county is also working with the city of Peachtree Corners and Gwinnett Housing Corporation to transform an extended-stay hotel into a 73-unit affordable housing development.

In DeKalb County, leaders are focused on streamlining the permitting process to ensure developers can move quickly on projects, said Tiffany Wills, vice president of redevelopment and strategic initiatives at Decide DeKalb Development Authority.

• DeKalb has also issued a request for proposals from consultants to help draft the county's first comprehensive housing plan.
• The city of Brookhaven last year purchased two lots for $7.4 million to build affordable housing next to the Peachtree Creek Greenway, said Patty Hansen, the city's director of strategic partnerships.

The big picture: Metro Atlanta's housing crisis is happening amid President Trump's efforts to freeze federal funding programs, including money local governments rely on to provide affordable housing.

• A federal judge temporarily blocked those efforts.

The bottom line: While operations at the federal level have become unpredictable, Elder said the country is coming off an election year where more candidates talked about affordable housing — and local governments can't afford to lose that momentum.

• "We're going to keep doing what we do at the local level one step at a time," he said.

Go deeper: Nearly 1 in 3 Atlanta renters spend over half their income on housing