The Atlanta City Council approved legislation on Feb. 16 approving funds for afterschool meal services, playground improvements, and affordable housing.
The council approved an ordinance on Monday ratifying the execution of a $2 million intergovernmental agreement for the Bowen Choice Neighborhood Transformation Plan with Atlanta Housing. This plan seeks to redevelop the old Bowen Homes site in northwest Atlanta into a connected neighborhood with new housing, parks, trails, and community spaces. This money is the city’s first portion of an eight-year, $10 million commitment to Atlanta Housing.
Other items approved by the council on Monday and sent to the mayor’s office post-haste were an ordinance retroactively exercising the renewal option for afterschool meal services at a cost of $634,500, an ordinance donating approximately $136,000 to Park Pride to support playground improvements in Deerwood Park in southwest Atlanta, and an ordinance authorizing the chief financial officer to extinguish taxes, assessments, and service fees in the amount of approximately $346,000 for properties owned by the Fulton County/City of Atlanta Land Bank Authority.
Councilmember Kelsea Bond, one of the three newly elected councilmembers, also introduced their first resolution on Monday. Ahead of the FIFA World Cup this summer, the resolution – co-sponsored by Councilmembers Jason Dozier and Antonio Lewis – calls on the Atlanta Police Department to significantly expand the use of pre-arrest diversion programs to curb unnecessary arrests and address the ongoing overcrowding of the Fulton County Jail.
“In practice, we are significantly underutilizing the Center for Diversion Services,” Bond said. “The current conditions at the Fulton County Jail represent a human rights crisis. It’s morally imperative that the City of Atlanta steps up to utilize diversion as an alternative to arrest for eligible cases and take immediate steps to reduce the jail population. It’s time to end the criminalization of homelessness, poverty, and mental illness.”
Michael Collins, a member of the PlayFair ATL Coalition, has spoken during public comment at several City Council meetings advocating for unhoused Atlantans in the wake of the World Cup. During the 1996 Olympics, Atlanta changed its laws to arrest over 9,000 people experiencing homelessness, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“As Atlanta prepares to welcome the world for the FIFA World Cup, we have a responsibility to learn from our history,” Collins said of Bond’s resolution. “We saw what happened when Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympics. This period was marked by aggressive enforcement strategies that disproportionately impacted unsheltered Atlantans, low-income communities, and people of color. We cannot allow that to happen again. This resolution ensures that Atlanta responds to public safety concerns with smart, proactive, and humane solutions that prioritize diversion and services over handcuffs and jail.”
Related stories:
• New transit project breaks ground in South Metro Atlanta
• Atlanta Opera breaks ground on Molly Blank Center for Opera
