The Atlanta Regional Commission is sharing its long-term housing plan to address the growing regional affordability crisis.
Housing Forward 2035 sets goals for all 11 member counties of the Atlanta Regional Commission. The three focus areas are: keeping up with population growth, developing low-income housing, and addressing vacant properties.
The ARC has identified over 100,000 vacant or underutilized properties. The target is to create homes on 10% of those parcels.
ARC CEO Anna Roach says data shows what is expected to happen if they don’t make progress on housing affordability.
“By 2035, 75% of the people making less than $55,000 a year won’t have a housing solution to speak of, 75% of those people,” Roach said. “That is a sobering number. Should be a sobering number to each of us.”
ARC Housing Specialist Kristin Allin shared how the Housing Forward 2035 plan would impact the region at St Luke’s Episcopal on September 2, 2026.
Credit: Atlanta Regional Commission
The plan also focuses on aligning housing with job growth. Atlanta Regional Commission Housing Specialist Kristin Allin said that people shouldn’t commute more than 30 minutes.
“We want to sustain production, but we want to shift the where,” she said. “Shifting homes toward those job centers, transit areas.”
The goal is to build 367,000 units of housing, with half being affordable to people making 80% of the area median income. That’s around $94,000 a year for a family of four.
