WPCNR THE HOUSING NEWS. From Atlanta Housing Authority. July 2,2009: The following news release distributed to the media last July, gives you a unique and revealing view of how the government deals with public housing revitalization, and how it may deal with the Winbrook project. The release announces the last demolition of five neighborhood projects in Atlanta last summer, and notes the way in which previously "revitalized housing projects" in Atlanta have been repopulated.
It shows that two-thirds of persons formerly living in the "projects" do not return to live in the revitalized project, yet still are housed around the Atlanta area. The point the release makes is that in order to revitalize, you have to change the mix of persons to middle and upper class, otherwise the release candidly points out, the same behaviors and atmsopheres that plagued the old project return. It is reprinted in its entirety, without a break for the sobering reality that Atlanta has discovered:
The release (Dated July, 2008):
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today
approved the demolition of the final four major family housing projects in Atlanta.
The four projects – Hollywood Courts, Thomasville Heights, Herndon Homes and Bankhead Courts – contain more than 1,200 dwelling units. The demolition of a fifth project, Bowen Homes, with 650 units, was approved last week.
Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) expects approvals for the demolition of two severely distressed senior high-rise buildings imminently.
“History has been written today,” said Renee Lewis Glover, AHA’s president and CEO. “These
approvals mean the end of the 73 years of housing projects in Atlanta. We have become the first
major city in the nation to completely eradicate these areas of government-sponsored
concentrated poverty, crime and low educational achievement.”
Prior to the mid-1990s, AHA for decades had been a failing public agency, overseeing the largest
number of housing projects per capita in the nation. In 1994, Glover became president and CEO
of AHA, and embarked on a program that has become a nation model for community
revitalization.
With private sector partners, AHA has replaced distressed and obsolete developments
with high-quality mixed-use, mixed-income communities.
During Glover’s tenure, fourteen public housing projects have been redeveloped, such as
Centennial Place and Villages of East Lake. Atlanta is now cited as the national leader of how to eliminate the pockets of poverty, crime and low educational attainment that over time had become synonymous with “public housing projects.”
Just recently Las Vegas announced its plans modeling it’s elimination of housing projects after
Atlanta’s example:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/01/demise-vegas-public-housing-projects-sought/
AHA was cited in Governing magazine at http://www.governing.com/articles/0807atlanta.htm
this month in an article examining changes in Atlanta. Governing deemed AHA’s efforts to deconcentrate poverty and eliminate obsolete public housing a “success.”
A 2005 study by Georgia Tech economist Thomas D. Boston found that prior to transformation, crime in some neighborhoods was 69 percent higher than in surrounding areas and 79 percent of the residents were unemployed.
After redevelopment, crime in the neighborhood dropped by 91 percent and 66 percent of the residents were employed www.econ.gatech.edu/faculty/thomasboston/
Even more remarkable, Boston found that in 1995 just 10 percent of the students at the neighborhood elementary school passed a basic writing skills test. By 2002, a new neighborhood school had been constructed, new leadership was put in place and a new curriculum had been adopted. That year 62 percent of the neighborhood children passed basic writing skills test – a level that was about 50 percent higher than all elementary schools in the Atlanta system.
“There was a conscious and committed decision to no longer tolerate the policy of concentrating poor families in distressed neighborhoods,” Glover said. “Once we had seen the cracks in the wall that sustained failure, once we had witnessed first-hand the slow but steady progress children were making in school, and after we had seen the quality of life in our city begin to improve, we knew then there was no turning back.”
Glover emphasized that while AHA is closing the chapter on the policies that created “the housing projects,” the agency’s commitment to serving the housing needs of Atlanta’s poorer citizens has not been abandoned.
“In the 1930s, public housing was an amazingly far-sighted approach to the nation’s
critical shortage of housing,” Glover said. “But in the 21st Century, a new approach is necessary; one that integrates the families into the mainstream economy. Isolating poor families apart from the mainstream is wrong; the costs, financial, human, and social are staggering.”
Underscoring that, AHA (Atlanta Housing Authority)today serves thousands more families than it did in 1994 –despite the demolition of thousands of distressed public housing units. Unless disqualified by criminal activities, lease violations or refusal to work, all affected residents are guaranteed housing assistance. The amount the residents pay for rent and utilities remains the same – approximately 30 percent of their income.
In recent weeks, more than 1,300 residents of Bowen and the other projects slated for demolition participated in seminars to guide them on their transition to housing of their choice. In surveys conducted at the seminars, only 13 – a mere 1.4 percent – stated that
they did not want to move.
“We believe that intentionally keeping people in the warehouses of poverty called public housing projects only serves to narrow their life choices,” Glover said. “It is time to say,‘Enough is enough’ to that failed model. We have seen former residents prosper with good jobs, and their children have a decent chance to succeed because they will have access to high-performing schools and other better life opportunities.”
“Make no mistake,” Glover said, “when the other housing projects come down, Atlanta will have
made a great step on behalf of all Atlanta citizens.”
Since 1995, more than 10,000 households have successfully relocated from the housing
projects. Approximately 80 percent of the families chose to stay in the city of Atlanta
while the balance decided to use their housing assistance in other metropolitan-Atlanta
areas.
The overwhelming majority of residents living in Atlanta’s public housing projects are women and children. More than 70 percent of the households receiving housing assistance are employed full-time, enrolled in college or technical training program.
It is AHA’s policy to provide at least 27 months of individualized case management and human development services for families who are relocating. Research has shown that this investment substantially improves the odds for successful outcomes for the families.
After months of preparation, families will begin relocating from Bowen Homes within the next 30 days. Demolition will begin once the property is completely vacated(approximately 12-18 months).
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