The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today selected the City of Atlanta to compete for up to $5 million in new funding to support state and local rental housing preservation efforts. With the support of the MacArthur Foundation’s Award, the City of Atlanta initially would use the funding on the economically distressed neighborhoods along or adjacent to the southern rim the BeltLine Tax Allocation District (TAD) to prevent the loss of affordable housing in those areas. The City plans to advance these efforts as well as create an implement an affordable rental housing preservation strategy in the BeltLine Planning Area that can be expanded throughout the City of Atlanta and the metropolitan Atlanta region.
The collaborative efforts of the Atlanta Beltline, Inc (ABI), the Beltline Partnership, and the City’s Bureau of Housing will lend to the development and implementation of Atlanta’s first-ever truly comprehensive and coordinated affordable rental housing preservation/production strategy. “The scope of the MacArthur grant request will include citywide initiatives, however, key program components will focus on the economically distressed neighborhoods along or adjacent to the geographic rim of the Beltline Tax Allocation District”, said Terri Lee, Director of the Bureau of Housing. This funding opportunity, along with the historic passage of the Housing Opportunity Bond and the Atlanta Land Acquisition Fund, continues the Mayor’s commitment to providing resources to address neighborhood preservation and the City’s affordable housing needs.
A new report released today by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies details the devastating effect the mortgage crisis is having on the rental market. The report shows that the increasing number of mortgage foreclosures has added to the number of households vying for affordable rental units, noting that the number of renter households jumped by nearly one million last year, more than four times faster than the pace of renter growth from 2003 to 2006. While acknowledging the importance of efforts to assist homeowners facing foreclosure, the report proposes the development of a new and more balanced set of housing policy initiatives that would expand opportunities for renters and homeowners alike. The Join Center Report can be found at www.jchs.harvard.edu.
“This new report underscores that the demand for affordable rental housing is increasing at the same time that the supply of low-cost rental is declining,” said Jonathan Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation. “The debate on national housing policy must not exclude the more than 35 million renter households. We clearly need policies that honor the role of rental housing as well as homeownership. The diverse cities, counties, and states selected as finalists for MacArthur funding share a commitment to preserving and improving affordable rental housing and have offered ideas that we believe are creative and potentially very effective.”
The 2006 American Community Survey identifies 211,300 housing units within the City of Atlanta, of which approximately 85,330 units (40%) are classified as rental housing. One-third of the City’s households are cost-burdened, with 68% of those households being renters. Fair market rent for a three bedroom apartment in Atlanta was $1,003 in 2007, but a family of four earning 50% of the Area Median Income ($33,550) could only afford $838/month.
The elements of the City’s request include the development of a comprehensive rental inventory and analysis; predevelopment and acquisition of critical and at-risk rental properties; and a strategic policy and program evaluation mechanism to measure the effectiveness and impact of the housing initiative. The MacArthur Foundation award will allow the City and ABI the unprecedented opportunity to address an enormous, unmet need at a meaningful scale with a systemic approach in addressing the preservation of affordable rental housing.
The MacArthur Foundation will provide a total of $35 million in multi-year grants and program-related investments (low-interest loans) to up to ten state and local governments that are demonstrating outstanding leadership through promising, high impact approaches to preserving and improving affordable rental housing. Individual awards, which will be announced in early 2009, will range from $250,000 to $5 million and must be used to design, demonstrate or scale up a significant preservation initiative. The 21 finalists announced today were selected from over 80 jurisdictions that applied.
These grants and low-interest loans are part of MacArthur’s $150-million Window of Opportunity initiative, which seeks to preserve 300,000 affordable rental homes across the country. The Foundation also aims to stimulate policy reforms that reverse the loss of existing, affordable rental homes, enabling communities and rental housing owners to preserve at least one million units over the decade ahead.
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About John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution helping to build a more just and sustainable world. Through the support it provides, the Foundation fosters the development of knowledge, nurtures individual creativity, strengthens institutions, helps improve public policy, and provides information to the public, primarily through support for public interest media. With assets of more than $6.8 billion, the Foundation makes approximately $260 million in grants annually. More information is available at www.macfound.org.