The Atlanta City Council passed an ordinance Monday committing $6 million to expand access to affordable fresh food in low-income neighborhoods by allowing the city to develop grocery stores and markets.
With the city’s ongoing water woes dominating proceedings, the council passed the ordinance unanimously as one of many items on the City Council’s consent agenda, and without discussion. Approval came after Atlanta Watershed Commissioner Al Wiggins, and LaChandra Burks, the city’s interim chief operating officer, briefed city council members on efforts to stem the crisis as it entered its fourth day.
Funding will go to Invest Atlanta’s Grocery Store Initiative which has a goal to eliminate food deserts and make fresh food more readily available to low-income Atlantans.
By 2025, Dickens wants 85% of residents to have healthy and affordable food options nearby, and the City Council said the ordinance would help further that goal.
In recent years, the city has taken action to reduce food insecurity and food deserts. In 2015, just over half of the city’s residents lived within one half-mile of grocery stores offering fresh food, but that rose to 75% of residents in 2020, according to the city’s Fresh Food Access Report.
In June 2023, the city authorized an allocation of $1.5 million to create and fund the Economic Opportunity Fund — Food Access Grant. According to the ordinance, Invest Atlanta and the mayor’s office found through a market analysis and discussions with industry experts that attracting grocery stores requires a “significant public subsidy.”
“Invest Atlanta and the Mayor’s Office have determined that the most expeditious and effective pathway for increasing fresh food access, particularly in (Low-Income, Low-Access) areas, including key focus neighborhoods that have suffered from prolonged disinvestment, is to directly invest at scale in the construction and operation of grocery stores and fresh food providers,” the ordinance states.
During a May budget hearing, Invest Atlanta came under scrutiny from some of the council members over the scarcity of grocery stores in their districts.
District 11 Councilwoman Marci Collier Overstreet said she was unsure how much funding from the city’s economic development arm would end up in her district. She said that it was the seventh year in a row that she had asked for funding in southwest Atlanta for a grocery store.
“I know you’re highlighting that you’re prioritizing grocery but this is year seven,” she said. “We still don’t have one.”
On Monday, Overstreet said the funding is critical for residents and businesses lacking grocery stores and markets.
“Overcoming the prolonged disinvestment that has resulted in a highly recognizable deficiency of grocery stores and fresh food options in parts of Atlanta requires a concerted effort,” she said in a statement. adding that the funds would “further our commitment of prioritizing fresh groceries in low-income neighborhoods.”
Additionally, the City Council approved an ordinance executing a U.S. Housing and Urban Development home assistance program contract with Puffin Real Estate for $247,000 in rental subsidies. It will fund 16 low-income families at the Washington Street Apartments under the City’s Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Program, the City Council said.
