Atlanta needs to preserve 116,000 homes by 2035 to address affordability
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The metro Atlanta region will need to add 116,000 affordable housing units just to maintain the status quo over the next decade.
Why it matters: With the region losing 250,000 units priced below $1,250 between 2019 and 2024, none of the 11 counties in the Atlanta Regional Commission can fix the shortfall alone and must work across county lines.
The latest: That's the key directive elected officials and other stakeholders took away from the ARC's Regional Housing Summit.
- Last week's gathering brought together business, nonprofit and government leaders to map the challenges the area faces and potential methods to solve the crisis.
By the numbers: Atlanta will need at least 367,000 new homes by 2035 to keep up with the demand of 396,000 new jobs and 350,000 additional households, said Sharon Carney of HR&A, an advisory firm that worked with the ARC to develop a regional housing strategy.
- Of the 400,000 new jobs, 88% of them will offer wages below $80,000. 63% of the 350,000 households will make $115,000 or less.
- Looking ahead, the region could lose more than 100,000 affordable housing units due to rising prices, deed restrictions and expiring affordability covenants.
- "That makes preservation of what's currently affordable a really important part of the process," she said.
- Projections show the region will need 116,000 affordable housing units priced at no more than $1,300 per month to maintain the current supply, Carney said.
The fine print: More than half of tenants in metro Atlanta spend at least 30% of their income on housing and 25% of tenants spend over 50%, said Katie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
- Kirkpatrick told attendees a representative from a major homebuilder said the region would need to create two housing units for every job created.
- And since supply has not kept up with the demand, "we've got to go and attack the supply side of this equation," she said.
The bottom line: Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta president and CEO Frank Fernandez said filling the housing gap should also be on the radar of nonprofits.
- The organization has used its affordable housing fund to support dozens of projects across the region.
- Fernandez said around $400 million would be needed to address the problem on a regional scale.
- "There is not one single bullet that's going to solve it," he said. "It's all these things working in concert that are going to really be able to move the needle."