Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, city housing developers, and longtime community residents gathered Tuesday morning in the Atlanta summer heat for the groundbreaking ceremony of a new affordable housing complex being built in the Sylvan Hills neighborhood.
The 233-unit complex is the second phase of redevelopment for the community, following its construction of senior living apartments that were built in the neighborhood in 2022.
“Affordable housing is my love language,” said Dickens during the groundbreaking ceremony. One of his main motives when entering office in 2022 was to have 20,000 affordable housing units built in the city by 2030.
“So far, we are about three and a half years in, and we have 6,800 units completed and 5,000 more units already under construction or funded,” said Dickens.
In recent years, like many other neighborhoods in Atlanta, Sylvan Hills has been a target and victim of gentrification and demographic shift. From 2010 to 2020, the city of Atlanta noticed a 7.1% decline in the Black population, according to census data.
“Some of my concern about gentrification is how it’s pushing residents out of the city, so this development is important because we have to ensure legacy residents have a place to live that’s affordable,” said Sharon Guest, the founder of Radiant Development Partners, one of the development companies that helped with the project.
Guest is an Atlanta native herself, born and raised in the Ben Hill community and a graduate of Atlanta Public Schools, so this development was really special to her because this is her city and her people, she said.
Residents Mary Moss and Robin Stanley of the Sylvan Hills Senior Apartments have both been living in Atlanta for over six decades and have watched the city change year by year. They both said that this new development sounds like a good thing for the area, but they hope it will open up opportunities to have more living amenities around the area, such as healthy food options.
This project cost $52.7 million and was publicly and privately funded by eight different sources. According to Atlanta Housing, one of the developers on the project, the new development will appeal to households of various incomes.
-24 units for residents earning at or below 50% of the area median income (AMI)
-93 units for residents below 60% of the AMI
-116 units for residents below 80% of the AMI
The 20-month project is expected to be available for rent in late 2026, with units ranging from one-bedroom to three-bedroom.
According to Atlanta Housing, this is one of many affordable housing developments currently in the works.