As a longtime resident in Vine City in Atlanta, Thelma Reneau has seen her share of changes and redevelopment, and she is aware how eyesore properties can bring the community down.
“I got some new neighbors. We want to see things better, and we’re going to make it better,” she said outside her home on Monday. But she gestured toward a blighted property up the street, and said it was making the neighborhood “look bad.”
“That’s the first thing you see just when you are coming up,” she said. “I don’t know what we can do.”
The Westside Future Fund, a nonprofit formed to help revitalize the historic Westside, helped Reneau stay in the community she’s lived in for close to 60 years when it offered her property tax relief through its Anti-Displacement Tax Fund. But many of her old neighbors have moved on, she said. New residents have moved in to take their place.
Others are private investors, seeing an opportunity to buy in one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, even if the property is neglected or in a state of disrepair. Then they just sit on the land, according to officials, waiting for the right time to cash in.
The city of Atlanta recognizes the problem and has taken action against owners of eyesore properties and land, which can be magnets for crime. In August, the city council approved the so-called “Blight Tax.” The new law, which goes into effect next year, allows officials to tax property owners 25 times higher than the current millage rate. Earlier this month, the city adopted a resolution creating a blight condemnation program allowing officials to use eminent domain to take control of properties that they want to clean up more quickly.
Mayor Andre Dickens met Reneau on Monday, as he toured her neighborhood to see the work the Westside Future Fund is doing to help residents with tax relief, new homes and renovations. He was accompanied by Atlanta Housing CEO Terri Lee, Invest Atlanta chief operating officer Dawn Arnold, District 3 councilman Byron Amos, and the Westside Future Fund’s president and CEO John Ahmann.
“Some of them buy these properties sight unseen and just sit on it,” Dickens said on the sidewalk outside Reneau’s house. “They know that all this new development is happening, and so they’re just trying to make more and more money. But they’re holding the community back.”
Dickens’ chief policy officer and senior adviser Courtney English said he believed there were more than 500 eyesore properties in Vine City that could be targeted. He said there could be as many as 3,000 properties citywide.
“Make no mistake about it, it is a war,” Amos added during a press conference. “Those of you who are illegally building in our communities, disregarding the permitting process, ignoring the stop work orders, and refusing to renovate until your property values go up … You are next. We are putting you on notice. We are saying to you what my grandmom used to say to me: ‘Boy, get in there and clean up your mess.’”
Westside Future Fund sold a home on English Avenue to another resident, Destiny Motley. A former music teacher, she now lives in a 3-bedroom and 2-bathroom with a pristine exterior and a fenced yard. But behind her was a slanted house with a caved-in façade, bits and pieces spilling on to the grass. Across the street was an abandoned semitrailer, sprayed with graffiti.
Nevertheless, she said she loves her new home. Still, it’s tough when she sees other homes are not treated with the same “love or care,” she said.
Ahmann said at the news conference the greater goal was to take neglected vacant land or homes and repurpose it for affordable housing.
“That’s wealth building for legacy residents,” he said.
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