Metro Atlanta’s affordable housing stock is shrinking and the current multifamily development boom does not address affordability in any measurable manner. A recent report lists Atlanta as having the second-highest number of new high-end apartment units in the nation – an increase of 867% since 2012. At the same time, according to Invest Atlanta’s Housing Strategy, the number of Atlanta’s residents paying more than 30% of their monthly income rose significantly between 2000 and 2012. Today, nearly 68% of low-income rental households in Atlanta spend more than half of their income on housing alone. There are a troubling number of trends that impact housing affordability.

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• Atlanta is losing “naturally occurring” affordable housing at 16% annual rate, with nearly 8,000 units lost since 2010. Much of this loss is due to gentrification.(1)
   

• 24,000 of Atlanta’s affordable homes could be lost to expiring public subsidies by 2030. (2)
   

• Atlanta has a current deficit of 25,000 quality affordable homes for households with income at or below $34,000 (50% AMI).
   

• 7 out of 10 Atlanta residents with household income at $24,000 or less (30% AMI) spend more than half of their income on housing. (3)
   

• Atlanta saw 20 eviction filings and 13 completed evictions per 100 rented housing units in 2015. Eviction filings exceeded 30 per 100 rented households in 8 Neighborhood Planning Units. (4)

 

1  D. Immergluck, A. Carpenter, A. Lueders. 2016. Declines in Low-Cost Rented Housing Units in Eight    
    Large Southern Cities

2  National Housing Preservation Database, 2016

3  Enterprise Community Partners, 2017 Housing Insecurity Profile

4  Elora Raymond, et al., Georgia Tech