Emory to turn former homeless shelter into housing for health workers
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The former Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless building on Peachtree Street. Photo: Courtesy of Victoria Lemos
A former Atlanta auto garage and homeless shelter will be redeveloped into apartments for Emory Midtown health care workers.
Why it matters: The Emory University-led project aims to preserve much of the historic Peachtree Street buildings while creating housing for nurses and technicians priced out of Atlanta.
Zoom in: The university, which purchased the property from Central Atlanta Progress in 2019, announced plans Monday to build more than 50 "competitively priced" rental apartments for health care workers.
Caveat: The project is still in the early stages, university officials said, and key details such as family accommodations or eligible salary ranges will be presented in the future.
The big picture: Affordable housing for health care workers is a major challenge, especially for staff working 12-hour shifts and managing family responsibilities, Eric Ford, a health care management professor at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, told Axios.
- Emory officials said they're considering including a preschool, which would be available to the public, as part of the project.
Catch up quick: The buildings most famously served as a shelter run by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless that once housed an estimated 15,000 men, women and children annually, according to a Georgia State University research project.
- The shelter closed in 2017 after years of political and legal battles with City Hall and business leaders, including Emory, over the nonprofit leadership's management.
- Central Atlanta Progress, by then the owner, worked with the city to find residents new housing. Emory bought the buildings in 2019.
What they're saying: The reuse of the historic buildings "is a phenomenal win-win for all parties," David Y. Mitchell of the Atlanta Preservation Center tells Axios.
- "Now you have, if you will, a state-of-the-art hospital across the street from an architecturally significant and contributing structure that gives people a place of identity and home [to] create so much of what we claim Atlanta is. Now you can visually see it."
Context: The proposed housing is located at the northern edge of The Stitch, Central Atlanta Progress' plan to cover the Downtown Connector with 14 acres of green space.
- Mitchell said he hopes the reuse of the historic buildings will set a tone for the redevelopment of nearby properties on life support like the Medical Arts Building.
What's next: Emory has applied for a special permit from City Hall to demolish part of the 487 Peachtree Street building to add windows for the new apartments.
Editor's note: The photo caption has been corrected to show that the photo belongs to Victoria Lemos (not Emory University).