City Councilmember Andrea L. Boone and Mayor Andre Dickens were on hand Tuesday to open a new affordable housing complex in southwest Atlanta, close to the Hamilton E. Holmes MARTA station.
Hamilton Hills on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW has 52 units, with one-bedrooms starting at $904, two-bedroom units for $1,085, and three-bedrooms for $1,253. The housing on offer is for households earning 50-60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), or $53,750 and $64,500, respectively, for four-person households.
In addition to being close to transit and amenities, I-285 and I-75/85, along with I-20, are nearby.
Dickens put the latest city-backed affordable housing development in the context of the region’s rapid growth. Metro Atlanta is the sixth-fastest-growing region in the U.S., and in September, credit rating agency Fitch gave the city its highest rating. This shows the city is booming, according to Dickens.
“But all of this also means nothing if people don’t have a roof over their head. The success of our city is directly tied to the success of our citizens,” he said before a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The development is part of the mayor’s goal to produce or renovate 20,000 new affordable housing units by the year 2030. More than two and a half years into his first term, Dickens said he was halfway toward that goal. According to the city’s affordable housing tracker, since the beginning of 2022, the city has delivered 5,885 units, with another 4,122 under construction.
Boone stressed how important the new development is to people who live on MLK Drive in the southwest corridor, an area that has struggled with poverty and blight. The councilwoman said she had lived in the area her whole life and wanted to provide her constituents with safe, affordable homes.
“This community is filled with hardworking residents who wake up every morning, rain or shine, and contribute generously to our economy. We owe them nothing less than this very worthy investment,” she said.
The development, which broke ground in 2023, has a Goodr community market nearby, as well as a garden and benches where residents can “actually take time to sit down” and get to know their neighbors, the District 10 councilwoman said.
Gorman & Company partnered with Invest Atlanta and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs on the project. According to department official Tracie Sanchez, the state invested a total of $11 million in the project through a home loan and housing tax credits.
Truist Community Capital provided around $23 million in project financing, including a construction loan and a tax credit equity investment, said Truist’s Eric Rosen.
Dickens said the development would eventually feature more than 90 affordable housing units. Like Boone, he said he feels a personal connection to the community.
“My church is across the street. My home is about three blocks away. This is the MARTA station that I grew up with,” he said. “To watch this daily as it was being developed really means something to me and Andrea Boone. This is community building, right here.”
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