The last gasps of affordable housing in Buckhead
According to city, only 4 percent of apartments are within reach for middle-income earners
Three years ago, Rhett Anders moved into an apartment nestled in a rare oasis of affordability in Buckhead. For $1,100 a month, the antiques and vintage dealer was able to call the two-bedroom unit on East Wesley Road in the middle of Atlanta’s most affluent community home. A nearby studio goes for the same monthly rate.
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That will soon change. Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church, which owns the building where Anders lives and other nearby apartments, plans to demolish them. The primary reason is because the Garden Hills units need maintenance that the church can’t afford. Also: the high cost of property taxes that come with a posh address.
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High land values, high-performing schools, and high demand for intown living have quickened the swing of the wrecking ball on several nearby inexpensive properties in Buckhead where, according to city estimates, only 4 percent of the current rental housing is considered affordable. The question is whether the tools that help keep some units within reach of teachers, police officers, and service workers can keep up — or even make a dent.
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“It’s probably one of the last affordable housing options in Garden Hills,” says Anders, who has found a new place on the Westside. “I lucked out and found a great deal but some other neighbors in the cheaper units won’t be able to stay around town.”
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Second Ponce purchased the apartments, which are located in divided-up homes or standalone buildings, in the late ’80s and early 2000s for potential expansion opportunities, says Jeff Miller, the church’s administrator.
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In March, church officials requested a home inspector review the units. The results shocked them. So did the subsequent estimates to repair the roof. Bringing all the units up to code would cost roughly $500,000, Miller says. Church leaders decided to demolish the buildings and exit a business they “never intended to be in” rather than pay to maintain the structures.
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In April residents received 60 days notice to vacate their homes. Once the church picks a contractor and finishes the permitting process, the buildings will be demolished and the land turned into greenspace.
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Miller says he understands the residents’ frustration. The church is covering the tenants’ June rent and has offered extensions because of the July Fourth holiday.
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“I hate that this is happening but we are caught in a bad situation here,” he says. “We can’t afford to bring the properties up to standards that tenants deserve.”
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The razing of Second Ponce’s 16 apartments follows demolitions of other affordable complexes, leaving mostly pricy developments. On Pharr Road, developer Trammell Crow is turning a shopping center into a 244-unit apartment complex. At Allure in Buckhead Village, a neighboring apartment complex, available units rent from $1,045 per month to $3,240 per month. Elle, another nearby apartment complex, is offering a one-bedroom unit for as high as $1,542 a month.
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According to Dawn Luke, the housing finance director of Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development agency, only 1,170 of Buckhead’s 30,000 existing rental units fall under the federal government’s definition of affordable.
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Due to the booming housing economy in affluent Atlanta neighborhoods, Luke says, developers are taking advantage of the market — and tapping tax incentives that don’t require building affordable units. The Development Authority of Fulton County, which does not require affordability, provided incentives to six Buckhead projects from 2012 to 2015 totaling 2,263 units.
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Invest Atlanta requires developers who seek incentives to include a percentage of affordable housing. But developers are not required to do so in their projects. The agency offers some programs to help people making less than the average median income purchase a home in certain areas. Doing so is important because “our teachers can’t afford to live in the city, nor can our police officers or health care workers who risk their lives for us.”
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Andy Schneggenburger, an affordable housing advocate, agrees, saying that making sure people of all income levels can live throughout the city, even in posh Buckhead, could help ease the inequality crunch in Atlanta: “Access to jobs, good schools, and other levers of economic advancement are severely hampered by economic and physical segregation.”
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However, he acknowledges that without a large public investment, the affordability ship appears to be sailing way from Buckhead.
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Invest Atlanta has created a housing strategy aimed at making it easier for people from all socioeconomic levels to move to — or stay in — parts of Atlanta that are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Potential solutions include inclusionary zoning and focusing affordable housing in targeted areas. Mayor Kasim Reed and the Atlanta City Council must approve the plan.
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But those discussions, which will begin later this year, won’t do anything to immediately ease the affordability crunch in Buckhead.