Affordable Housing
Affordable Housing
Keisha didn’t just talk about affordable housing, she delivered it. She raised more than $700 million, and helped build or preserve more than 7,000 affordable homes—taking real action to keep residents housed during crisis and recovery.
• During the pandemic and global supply chain crisis, raised more than $700 million and helped build or preserve more than 7,000 affordable housing units, while also expanding opportunity through Heritage Owner-Occupied Rehab programs that provided forgivable loans for critical health and safety repairs
• Established Fight The Blight, a program for demolishing abandoned and neglected properties to create safe and welcoming neighborhoods.
• Further advanced affordable housing and workforce development through the Gulch Development Deal, now Centennial Yards, the largest real estate development transaction in the Southeastern United States, securing $42 million in developer commitments to support affordable housing and workforce development in underserved neighborhoods.
• Introduced the City of Atlanta Housing Affordability Action Plan, a roadmap for increasing housing inventory so that a broader spectrum of the workforce and more seniors could find the types of homes they needed to lead happy, healthy, and productive lives.
• Signed an eviction moratorium covering federally supported housing and issued an executive order creating a $7 million emergency assistance fund.
• Launched the #ATLSTRONG Fund in partnership with the United Way of Greater Atlanta to keep people from losing their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Released American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds to provide 6,000 families with emergency rental assistance, moved about 500 people to permanent and affordable homes, and ensured access to $100 million in new bond funding to support the creation and preservation of more affordable homes for hard-working people, such as bus drivers, paramedics, and retail workers.
• Championed a plan to build affordable housing for local teachers and seniors, a development known as Teachers Village, which is currently in progress.
• Scrapped a planned garden honoring former mayors in favor of affordable housing, helping clear the way for Trinity Central Flats, a $130 million, 218-unit development across from City Hall designed to provide workforce housing, including units for city employees and people experiencing homelessness.
• Appointed the city’s first Chief Housing Officer to coordinate affordable housing policy across agencies that had previously operated in silos, after securing philanthropic support to fund the position.