A nonprofit operator of Medicaid plans for low income families said Monday it will invest $2.5 million to preserve affordable rental housing in metro Atlanta.
CareSource announced plans to give funds to the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP), which is another a nonprofit that develops and finances affordable housing. CareSource said the funds will allow ANDP to acquire and rehabilitate 75 single-family homes in the metro area.
“CareSource’s $2.5 million investment will provide 75 families or individuals with reliable, safe and affordable places to call home,” said Ashani O’Mard, ANDP’s senior vice president for strategic housing investments.
In a statement, CareSource Georgia market president Jason Bearden said health care leaders need to address Atlanta’s lack of affordable housing opportunities. He said housing stability directly affects health outcomes, and he lauded ANDP for removing barriers to housing. The ANDP’s single-family rental portfolio has grown from 20 to nearly 200 homes this year, said CareSource.
“When families struggle with the high cost of rent, they are forced to make decisions between transportation, food, routine doctor’s visits and other necessities,” Bearden said in a statement.
Metro Atlanta has seen a wave of luxury apartment development over the past decade, but relatively meager investment in new affordable units. The city’s low-income housing agency, the Atlanta Housing Authority, was largely sidelined from new development in recent years, and programs to push affordability across the region have been outpaced by construction of market-rate units.
Affordable housing is also being squeezed as housing costs rise, putting a strain on low- and moderate- income workers. The issue has attracted the attention of the public and private sectors as they try to address the matter.
The long-stalled redevelopment of the Atlanta Civic Center is expected to add hundreds of new affordable rentals in the years ahead.
AHA recently partnered with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as private developers to rehabilitate 1,742 public housing units, according to an AHA spokeswoman.
The AHA also has agreements with more than 30 private owners and developers to provide affordable housing to more than 10,000 AHA-assisted moderate- to low- income families in 117 properties, according to Atlanta Housing.
“We are indeed facing a critical shortage of affordable housing in the metro Atlanta region,” Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement. “I remain committed to finding solutions to solve that problem and working with partners, whether they are state partners, federal partners, local partners or nonprofits and agencies like CareSource and ANDP to move Atlanta forward.”
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