Two years ago, Dorice Nolan, was ecstatic to get a work promotion. The phlebotomy supervisor became a salaried employee, a career advancement she hoped would provide more stability for herself and her two teenage children.
Nolan, 48, grew up in Atlanta. She was born and raised in a middle class, two-parent family in Kirkwood, but when she became a single parent at a young age, she struggled financially.
At one point, after an injury sidelined her from working, Nolan ended up homeless. She and her children stayed in a shelter until the agency was able to help them find affordable housing.
By 2011, no longer in need of rental assistance, Nolan was able to rent a home in the city.
Nolan should have felt more secure and closer to the stability she had long sought when she was promoted. Hadn’t she done everything she should do to become self-sufficient?
But in December, Nolan’s landlord gave notice that he would not be renewing the lease on the three-bedroom, one-bathroom home she rents in Thomasville Heights.
When we talked last week, she told me she was stepping down from her promotion to return to a position with hourly pay so she can work overtime to make ends meet and hopefully find a rental that meets her ceiling of $1,550 before the month’s end.
“I was thinking (after the promotion) that it would be better, but it is not better,” Nolan said. “I can’t find a place that I can afford for me and my kids.”
We’ve heard a lot of talk about affordable housing in metro Atlanta, in recent months, mostly about the fact that it doesn’t exist.
When I hear stories like Nolan’s, I feel helpless.
What are we really doing if people who work hard and do everything “by the book” still can’t find a safe, affordable place to live?
Mayor Andre Dickens has claimed affordable housing as his issue. “My hope is that in eight years, I’ve worked myself out of a need for government assistance to create affordable housing,” Dickens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview prior to the runoff election.
He also pledged to make real changes to affordable housing within his first 100 days in office.
Housing experts tell us that anything above 30% of income spent on housing is considered housing cost burdened. As of 2019, 50% of all renter households in the 10-county metro Atlanta region are housing cost burdened, according to data from the Atlanta Regional Commission.
These numbers don’t mean much until you talk about how they impact real life.
Nolan uses multiple rental sites to look for housing. She applied for a few places in Riverdale —priced from $1,395 to $1,695 — but was denied because, over the years, her credit score has suffered despite having worked at her current job for the past five years.
Many of the other rental units outside of the city were priced well beyond her range, including a two bedroom, 2.5 bathroom apartment in Sandy Springs for $3,500 a month.
I recently viewed data from Apartment Guide showing that in the city of Atlanta, rental prices had decreased despite an overall increase in the state. I was skeptical based on Nolan’s experiences.
Apartment Guide managing editor Brian Carberry said while Atlanta had a decrease in rents, rental prices increased in 85% of cities in the state. That includes suburban areas like Lawrenceville, Kennesaw, Brookhaven, Suwannee, Marietta, College Park and Riverdale.
Carberry also noted that seasonal shifts and new construction could bring higher rents in the summer. How many of those developers are constructing properties that will be affordable?
George S. Burgan, spokesman for the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc., said affordability is often the last thing on developers’ minds in a hot market.
The organization, created to address the diminishing supply of affordable housing in metro Atlanta, is in year two of a five-year plan to create 2,000 affordable units. That includes 1,250 affordable apartments and 750 affordable single-family homes with at least 250 of those homes available as rentals, Burgan said.
I applaud the commitments being made to affordable housing, but they won’t help Nolan and countless others who need to find affordable rentals right now. Burgan suggests renters in immediate need seek financial counseling from accredited housing counseling agencies and use tools such as the GeorgiaHousingsearch.org which lists income based rentals.
“I don’t want to say my hands are tied but you are praying and trying to do the right thing,” Nolan said. ”We have to have safe, secure and affordable housing.”
Read more on the Real Life blog (www.ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/) and find Nedra on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn) and Twitter (@nrhoneajc) or email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.
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