The Atlanta City Council on Monday unanimously approved an Affordable Housing Impact Statement ordinance, which is designed to increase quality housing options in the city.
“I believe we need to start taking meaningful steps to increase quality housing options for the workforce of the City of Atlanta,” said Councilmember Andre Dickens. “This will provide us an estimate of affordable housing increases and decreases by policies and city actions. Hopefully today we took an important first step to improve the lives of the people of Atlanta.”
Some of legislative impacts in the Affordable Housing Impact Statement include:
· Land Use Elements to the City’s Comprehensive Development Plan;
· Acceptance of public and private grants including federal and state funding for the construction and/or rehabilitation of affordable housing units;
· Abandoned and blighted property legislation;
· Changes to building permit fees;
· Millage rate increases for blighted properties; and
· Changes to demolition policies
Effective July 1, 2016, the Office of Housing will provide a yearly report to the Community Development/Human Resources Committee on any housing units funded in whole or in part by public grant dollars, for which Affordable Housing Impact Statements have been prepared within a thirty year period. The report shall specify whether the units still exist, whether they are occupied, and whether the cost for those units is consistent with the affordability price points identified in the original grant application.
As chair of the Atlanta City Council Community Development Human Resources Committee and board member for both Invest Atlanta and the Atlanta BeltLine for the last two years, Dickens has been collaborating with others to improve housing options for Atlantans, including looking at what national best practices can be implemented here.
Matthew Charles Cardinale, a law student at Gonzaga University, provided the draft language of the legislation to Dickens who then helped tailor it for Atlanta.
