Recently, the project focused on Atlanta’s social housing model, pointing to it as one whose successes could be replicated in cities across the U.S. Harvard identified four key components of Atlanta’s approach: collaboration across sectors, identifying developable properties, strengthening governance and planning for the future. Mayor Andre Dickens, quick out of the starting block after taking office in 2022, declared that the city would build or preserve 20,000 housing units over an eight-year period. This was a bold commitment, considering that at the time Atlanta had become one of the nation’s least affordable major cities.
Additionally, Dickens inherited the daunting challenges of improving upward mobility for children, addressing the fallout from shortcomings in public education, and combating both the reality and perception of crime. “If cities want to thrive in the future, they must make smart investments and prioritize place-based development,” the mayor told me, referring to revitalizing neighborhoods by tailoring investments and policies to their unique characteristics, needs and assets.
Courtney English, the mayor’s chief policy officer, refers to the Atlanta housing approach as being about “neighborhood health.” English noted that Atlanta could have followed the path of Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy in 2013; Chicago, which led the nation in murders for the 12th consecutive year in 2023; or San Francisco, one of the 10 least affordable cities in the world. “We decided to take a different path,” English said. “We decided to make Atlanta the best place in the country to raise a child.”
Although Atlanta is a work in progress, the key to its success so far has been its focus on the city’s seven most distressed neighborhoods. These communities share several characteristics: a high percentage of children living in poverty, low high school graduation rates, limited broadband adoption, a significant number of rent-burdened households, widespread health challenges such as diabetes, poor access to fresh food, and a high percentage of residents without health insurance.
To confront those challenges, Atlanta brought together the leaders of various entities working on housing-related issues, including the housing authority, a community foundation, a land bank, the city transportation department and the public school system. Collectively known as the Affordable Housing Strike Force, this group coordinated efforts to ensure that all stakeholders worked toward a shared goal.
The strike force identified approximately 2,000 undeveloped acres that could be repurposed for housing, categorizing the properties on factors such as development readiness, remediation needs and proximity to transit. In one instance, the city found that it owned land that was suitable for housing but was being used for nonessential purposes, such as storage.
(Photo courtesy of Courtney English)
Atlanta’s progress would not have been possible without collaboration between the mayor, the City Council, civic leaders and key figures like English, who previously served as chair of the Atlanta school board. When public officials, especially mayors, use their platform to rally the community around a single goal, as Dickens has done with neighborhood development, it is difficult for stakeholders to resist becoming engaged.
When asked what he would say to public officials who believe this model wouldn’t work in their cities, English pointed to the long-term cost of inequity — that economic stability depends on building and maintaining a strong middle class and preventing widespread poverty and violence that drive residents out of a city. He also highlighted Detroit’s ongoing resurgence as an example of how targeted, neighborhood-based strategies can revitalize urban areas. “If we are intentional and urgent,” English said, “we can create meaningful change.”
Governing’s opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing’s editors or management.
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