A Case Study of the Reform of the Atlanta Housing Authority: 1994-2013
In the early 1990s, Atlanta was a city in crisis. It had more public housing per capita than any other U.S. city, but the cost of that distinction was staggering. Public housing developments had become epicenters of poverty, crime, and despair. The city’s population was shrinking, violence was rampant, and most of the city’s public schools were failing. The Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) itself was on the brink of federal receivership.
Amid this dire landscape, Atlanta was simultaneously preparing to host the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996 — a moment that presented both a challenge and an opportunity. Could the city reimagine itself while grappling with the severe issues embedded in its public housing system?
Diagnosing the Problem
Public housing in Atlanta had devolved into warehouses of hopelessness, where fragile populations of women, children, the elderly, and the disabled were trapped in dangerous, neglected environments. Bad federal policies, mismanagement, and a systemic lack of accountability had fostered environments where crime, trauma, and poverty flourished unchecked. These environments were systematically destroying America’s citizens, society’s most important assets. As a society, we must never abandon the belief in the “universal humanity and unlimited potential of all human beings”.
Strategic Solutions: Mainstreaming the Families, Real Estate and AHA
Recognizing that environment matters, AHA embarked on a bold strategy to reform its operations and redefine its mission. This strategy centered around three core objectives:
- Mainstream the Families: Empower residents to move out of concentrated poverty using Section 8 vouchers and tailored human development counseling.
- Mainstream the Real Estate: Transform public housing into economically diverse, mixed-use, mixed-income communities that mirrored the broader community.
- Mainstream the Agency: Reposition AHA from a traditional housing authority to a dynamic real estate organization with a public mission.
The HOPE VI Urban Revitalization Program
HOPE VI, a bipartisan federal program, (resulting from the recognition by a bipartisan Congressional Commission that “public housing” had failed its mission) provided the “tailored” regulatory and financial framework for this ambitious transformation. Initiated under President George H.W. Bush and championed by HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros during the Clinton administration, HOPE VI aimed to break the cycle of poverty through innovative public-private partnerships.
AHA leveraged HOPE VI funds and its tailored regulatory framework to launch the transformation of Techwood Homes/Clark Howell Homes, the nation’s first public housing development, into Centennial Place — a mixed-use, mixed-income community. Working with The Integral Partnership of Atlanta (TIPA), AHA adopted a set of guiding principles to shape its revitalization efforts:
- End the Concentration of Poverty: Create mixed-use, mixed-income communities with the goal of creating market rate communities, with a seamless affordable housing component. Without rooftops with disposable income, there will be no consequential investment in retail and commercial uses. All services and investment follow disposable income.
- Foster High Functioning Public/Private/Partnerships: Engage private developers and investors in long-term public/private/partnerships to create, own, and manage vibrant, sustainable live, work and play communities. These long-term partnerships must be structured to function well through all economic cycles.
- Prioritize Child-Centric Communities: Focus on educational excellence and family stability as catalysts for long-term success.
- Provide Affected Residents Choice: At the residents’ request, AHA provided the affected residents Section 8 vouchers (coupled with tailored family-based counseling) to escape the deplorable conditions in public housing and move to communities of opportunity of their choice. Reforms of the Section 8 program were implemented to broaden the acceptance of the vouchers by a larger group of private landlords in opportunity communities.
Impact and Legacy
The dramatic transformation of Techwood/Clark Howell Homes into Centennial Place, a masterplanned, mixed-use, mixed-income community was revolutionary. The Centennial Place financial, regulatory, and legal model became HUD’s national blueprint. Over time, AHA and its development partners replicated the Centennial Place model across 16 mixed-use, mixed-income communities in Atlanta. The results have been profound:
- $300 million in HOPE VI and public housing funds leveraged into over $3 billion in economic investment.
- 1,000 acres of land redeveloped, creating healthier, economically integrated neighborhoods.
- Overall violent crime in the City of Atlanta is down dramatically.
- Centennial Place Academy emerging as a top-performing STEAM-based public charter school.
- AHA removed from HUD’s troubled agency list in 1998 and designated a Moving to Work (MTW) agency in 2001. The MTW agreement, signed in 2003, provides a tailored regulatory framework that rewards innovation and impact.
- When Glover left the agency, AHA had ~$100 million in cash reserves.
- Private sector developers and investors across the country have used the Centennial Place blueprint to create hundreds of masterplanned, mixed-use, mixed-income communities.
Today, AHA stands as a diversified real estate organization with a public mission, serving more families than in 1994, but in healthier, more resilient communities. The lessons learned from AHA’s transformation continue to inform housing reform efforts across the nation.
As we look forward, the question remains: How can we continue to harness the power of strategic partnerships, innovative thinking, and resident-centered solutions to address the persistent challenges of housing instability and economic inequality? The answer lies in the enduring principle that environment matters.