Atlanta Through the Archives

Downtown (1949 - 2004)

Summary

As the Black middle class grew, many sought to move from the limited downtown quarters into neighborhoods on the periphery due to housing shortages. Black residents moving into white areas experienced hatred and flares of terrorism, including bombings of their homes. As a result, the 1952 Regional Use Plan for Metropolitan Atlanta, the first long-range plan for Atlanta created by the Metropolitan Planning Commission, focused on creating expansion areas for Black residents, particularly in far-flung suburbs. However, for decades, there remained inaction on the plight of Black housing in the city, with conditions in Summer Hill and Buttermilk Bottom igniting protests. The only attempt at a remedy for the housing plight was public housing run by the AHA. However, the AHA faced many lawsuits over their mismanagement, including their inadequate response to safety concerns by residents. Downtown public housing would eventually be redeveloped into mixed-use housing, consistent with the trend at the time.

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1949 - Mozley Place and North Avenue

Mayor Hartsfield acknowledged the mass dislocation of Black families caused by highway construction and the subsequent housing shortage. He then called on the Chamber of Commerce to appoint a committee to investigate solutions. Many of those displaced moved into the Mozley Place and North Avenue vicinities. In Mozley Place, there were flares of terrorism carried out by white residents aimed at preventing the encorachment of Black residents. One such instance included a bombing at a home on Southwest Ashby Street where a Black owner was scheduled to move in.

1952 - Up Ahead: A Regional Land Use Plan for Metropolitan Atlanta

The Metropolitan Planning Commission, created by the Georgia General Assembly in 1947 for the sole purpose of long-range planning, released its first master plan with important implications for Atlanta’s planning vision.

One aspect of focus is the elimination of blight. Blight is loosely defined, with some descriptions indicating that even apartment homes fall under this classification: “blighted by traffic, encroachment of commerce and industry and conversion of homes into low-rent apartment houses…” (36). According to the 1950 census, “about 18 percent… of the dwelling units in the city limits of Atlanta at the time were rated substandard” (36). A heavy emphasis is placed on suburban development with a dependence on robust highway infrastructure.

Priority plans, as classified by the report, include providing areas for “Negro expansion”, particularly in the suburbs, and replacing the Auburn Avenue district with a civic center. This solution is meant to solve “the Negro housing problem… [that] stems from this group’s inability to find either enough available second-hand housing or enough open development land to meet its growing needs” (39). As a result, “pressure to expand has pushed this group into white neighborhoods and tensions have resulted. With a fairly fixed supply and an increased demand, properties for Negro occupancy have taken on a fictioious value which has no counterpart in the white housing market” (39). Consequently, the report notes that there is a long list of Black residents on the waiting lists for public housing, while there are very few on the white counterpart.

The report admits that “new housing will be needed for other thousands who might be displaced from the crowded downtown areas by expressway construction and redevelopment” (58). Its own vision includes such elements. On its map of a reinvisioned downtown, Sweet Auburn is remarked as a civic center. It also suggests Baker Street, a road near which many Black residents lived, “be widened into a six-lane traffic artery” (70). Sweet Auburn and Summer Hill are also recommended as sites for the potential World’s Fair.

The plan desires to solve these issues with Black expansion sites. Suggested sites include Sweat Road, West Gordon Road, Redwine Road, Bouldercrest, Washington Park, and Lynwood Park. Many of these sites were near industrial areas. During a public meeting on the plan, one person in attendance stated, according to the Atlanta Daily World’s reporting: “three of these proposed Negro settlements would be adjacent to industrial sites and one of them seems to strike the fancy of the commission because it would be convenient for certain other people to have their domestic servants live there. This is what the report says on page 88.”

1963 - Black Community Groups Demand Integrated Public Housing

At a conference in the Hurt Building downtown, the Atlanta Leadership Conference, a coalition of 9 civil rights groups, issued a statement urging the desegregation of Atlanta’s public housing. The AHA director said he would respond at a later date. Atlanta public housing remained segregated for years following these actions. The Chamber of Commerce and Fulton County Legislative Delegation likewise adopted resolutions calling for voluntary desegregation of all public-facing businesses.

1963 - Summer Hill Housing Plight

Once a place for the Black middle class, Summer Hill has, in recent years, become a symbol for all that is “tragic and bad in this city’s growing housing plight.” Less than 400 of the 2,000 housing units in the neighborhood are owned by the occupants, compared to the Fulton County average of one-half for whites, and one-third for nonwhites. Those who remain cannot afford to move and continue to suffer from deteriorating housing and poor public services. The average educational attainment in the neighborhood is sixth grade and 30% of the students at the elementary school are on free lunches.

1964 - Buttermilk Bottom Protest Pamphlet

Buttermilk Bottom has remained stagnant for almost 50 years, seeing little improvement in housing or public services. Streets are unpaved and unlit, garbage is not collected, and 40% of the area is considered dilapidated or deteriorating. The pamphlet urges the reader to “Join in the March for a Better Atlanta.”

1972 - NAACP Votes to Support tenants in Dispute with Housing Authority

The NAACP will begin providing legal support for tenants, including those at 354 Richardson Street, who have not received adequate responses from the AHA over their reports of health hazards. Sonny Royal, a representative of the tenants said: ``the AHAwith its racist Director Les Persells has used every trick in the book to keep the poor from fighting for things that everyone should have--a decent place to live.” These efforts coincide with a large rent strike by various tenant associations which had just occurred throughout the city.

1974 - Residents of Bedford-Pine Seek More Public Housing

Bedford-Pine Project Area Committee (PAC), an organization representing residents of Bedford-Pine, is demanding that at least 200 public housing units (out of 3,000 total) are included in a redevelopment conducted by Park Central Communities, Inc., which aims to create an inner-city area that will draw white suburbanites downtown.

1978 - Mayor Urges MARTA to Push Perry Line

Atlanta Mayor Jackson urged MARTA to include a rail line to Perry Homes as part of its next major construction program. MARTA was scheduled to soon apply for $433 million in federal aid to expand. The Perry Homes area supported MARTA prior to the 1971 referendum in which local voters approved the system, partially as a result of its plan to build a line to Perry Homes. Instead of building the line, they focused on downtown subway construction first.

The Citizens Advisory Council of Northwest Perry argues that the Perry Homes community risks severe losses without good transit.

1983 - AHA's Proposed Selling Of 2 Housing Projects Won't Improve Finances

Selling Techwood Homes and Clark Howell near downtown will not help the financial status of AHA according to Research Atlanta. AHA is frequently pressured to sell these properties to raise funds to improve its 40 other housing projects. $17 million in financial notes were sold by HUD to renovate Techwood and Clark Howell; if the projects were sold, AHA would have to repay the debt. The sale would have to be at $310,000 an acre to cover the debt, much higher than the going rate.

1996 - Atlanta Gets $46 Million To Demolish And Rebuild Public Housing Projects

Atlanta received $46 million (of $716 million total) in HOPE VI funds from HUD to replace substandard public housing (Carver Homes, Perry Homes, Kimberly Courts). Funds will also benefit job training and other programs for housing residents.

The goal of the program is to decentralize public housing and make it more transitional rather than permanent housing for residents. The AHA previously received HOPE VI money for the Olympic redevelopment of Techwood-Clark Howell into a mixed-income community.

Urban renewal in Olympic areas has proven successful; the King Historic district has received many inquiries about further private development, Summerhill home sales have seen an increase, and land in Vine City near the Georgia Dome has been earmarked as a future facility for the elderly.

2002- One Strike' Policy Draws Criticism And Support Locally

The Supreme Court upheld a “one strike” eviction policy for drug-related crimes on public housing tenants nationwide (HUD v. Rucker), including people ”under their control” in or near public housing.

According to AHA Director Glover, 8,500 Atlanta families are seeking access to a publicly assisted housing apartment, and 24,000 families are seeking a voucher. Each case under this law is viewed on a case-by-case basis in Atlanta; not many have been evicted.

Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. says 75% of their cases are housing issues and 20% now deal with the one-strike policy.

2004 - New West Highlands Replaces Perry Homes

West Highlands is now Atlanta’s largest in-town development; development replaced the 460-acre Perry Homes, which had its 189 public housing buildings destroyed in 2002 due to poor conditions.

1994 AHA received a $25.1 million grant from HOPE VI, pooled with $400 million total to create West Highlands, a mixed-used, new urbanist community. The proposed plan includes Columbia Estates (124 affordable and market-rate units), Columbia Heritage (132 unit senior complex), Columbia Park Citi (154 market-rate units), Columbia Crest (5,000 square feet of retail space), 1,100 detached single-family and townhome units, and an 18-hole public golf course. 90 of 460 acres will be green space.