Tell the City: We Need Affordable Homes in Reynoldstown!

Reynoldstown has a great opportunity to create more housing options for our unhoused neighbors, but we need your support!

A developer is requesting public funding from the City of Atlanta to provide 42 people experiencing homelessness with their own studio apartments. On-site counselors will work full-time to help residents receive other benefits (SNAP, Social Security, etc), coordinate dental and health care, and complete job training.

Despite the Mayor’s commitment to building 20,000 new affordable units across the city, the current City procedure defers to self-selected members of the neighborhood before granting the necessary public funding to make projects like this possible. Some Reynoldstown residents are opposing this great project, so we need your voice to ensure these homes will be available to our neighbors in need.

How can you help?

  1. Reynoldstown resident? Attend the Reynoldstown Civic Improvement League (RCIL) neighborhood association March meeting for a vote on Monday March 13 at 7:00 PM in person at Lang Carson or online. No presentations or discussions will occur during this meeting. This meeting is where RCIL will call the final vote.

  2. If you want to engage in discussion, questions, and presentations with the developer and other Reynoldstown community members, you can attend the RCIL Zoning meeting on March 2nd at 7:00 PM at Lang Carson or online.

  3. Click through to email Terri Lee, COO of the Atlanta Housing Authority, Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari, and Mayor Andre Dickens to let them know that you support affordable housing in Reynoldstown!

We invite all Atlanta residents to join our Reynoldstown neighbors in the letter writing action. Click the link on this page to 'Start Writing' or continue below for more project details.



Project Comparison:


Number of Units

Parking

Affordable Housing

Market Rate Units

Already Approved

45 studios with kitchenette

7 spaces with 36 total cars estimated*

7 units at 80% AMI ($54K)

38 units at about $1050/month

Requested

42 studios with kitchenette

7 spaces with 4 employee cars; program does not accept renters with cars

42 units at 30% AMI ($20,5000)


None- converted to offices for Supportive Services


*According to the 2019 American Community Survey, the car ownership rate for households in the city of Atlanta earning between $25,000 and $49,999 per year (which includes households with incomes between 60% and 120% of the Area Median Income) was 81.1%. This means we could reasonably expect at least 36 total cars- 7 in the provided spaces and 29 parking in the street.

The Project in Details

What the city approved in May 2022:

Total Number of Units: 45 studios with kitchenettes (no stove) and 1 shared full kitchen per floor

  • Must meet Beltline Inclusionary zoning requirements. The owner is leaning towards 15% of their units for incomes at or below 80% of AMI, which means

Parking: No parking is required by law, but the owner offered 9 spaces. This was reduced to 7 spaces to save a tree per an appeal filed.

  • According to the 2019 American Community Survey, the car ownership rate for households in the city of Atlanta earning between $25,000 and $49,999 per year (which includes households with incomes between 60% and 120% of the Area Median Income) was 81.1%. This means we could reasonably expect at least 36 additional cars around the property.


What the owner is requesting now: A letter of support from the neighborhood, which would allow for $1,181,148 of additional funding from the Atlanta Housing Authority. This funding would allow the owner to change the project to:

Total Number of Units: A decrease to 42 studios with kitchenettes (no stove) and 1 shared full kitchen per floor

  • 42 units at 30% AMI ($20,250 for a single person) as Partners for Home Supportive Housing

  • 3 remaining market rate units will be converted to offices for Supportive Services to help tenants in getting other social services, coordinating dental and health care, finding jobs, etc.

Parking: No change the 7 spaces provided BUT

  • Given the high demand for the units with Supportive Housing and in response to neighborhood concerns, any applicant with a car will be rejected.

    • Supportive Housing Staff will use 4 of the 7 spaces during the day while working.


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