Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 117: Terri M. Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer, Atlanta Housing

Transcript

Episode 117: Terri M. Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer, Atlanta Housing · ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

0:05
Speaker 1: This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
0:09
Speaker 1: solutions for the affordable housing community.
0:13
Speaker 2: This week's change maker is Terry Lee, the President and
0:17
Speaker 2: CEO of Atlanta Housing, a distinguished leader with over two
0:21
Speaker 2: decades of experience in housing and public policy across the
0:25
Speaker 2: Southeastern United States. As one of the nation's most trusted
0:29
Speaker 2: experts in housing affordability, Terry has spearheaded transformative initiatives, including
0:36
Speaker 2: the One Atlanta Housing Affordable Action Plan, which aimed to
0:40
Speaker 2: mobilize one billion dollars for creating and preserving affordable housing
0:46
Speaker 2: throughout Atlanta. Terry, welcome to the podcast.
0:51
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Katie. I truly truly appreciate the
0:53
Speaker 3: opportunity to share with you today.
0:56
Speaker 2: It is a pleasure and an honor to have you here.
0:59
Speaker 2: You have such an extensive career in urban planning and housing.
1:05
Speaker 2: So let's just jump right in, why don't we. Yeah,
1:08
Speaker 2: absolutely tell me about you being named atlantis first Chief
1:14
Speaker 2: Housing Officer by the then Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and
1:18
Speaker 2: now CEO of Atlanta Housing. What is it like to
1:23
Speaker 2: shape and address Atlanta's housing policy?
1:27
Speaker 3: You know, first and foremost, And again, I really really
1:29
Speaker 3: want to thank you for the opportunity to share with
1:31
Speaker 3: you today. But it's an absolute blessing. It literally is
1:35
Speaker 3: a blessing to be able to dedicate my life's work
1:40
Speaker 3: to lifting up and quite honestly, helping people find stable
1:43
Speaker 3: shelter in the hopes they could they could then grow
1:46
Speaker 3: to a different level of economic self sufficiency. You know,
1:50
Speaker 3: when I was named the first chief Housing Officer, I
1:53
Speaker 3: will tell you it was not a position that I sought,
1:56
Speaker 3: and quite honestly, when the city made the kimmuit or
2:00
Speaker 3: the previous mayor rather I made a commitment that she
2:02
Speaker 3: would invest a billion dollars towards affordable housing. I remember
2:06
Speaker 3: sitting in my office as Deputy Commission of City Planning saying,
2:09
Speaker 3: I don't know who's gonna take that job. Yeah, and
2:12
Speaker 3: God has a sense of humor. God has a sense
2:14
Speaker 3: of humor because it was me and he knew. But
2:19
Speaker 3: it was literally probably one of the most pivotal points
2:22
Speaker 3: in my trajectory, and it really gave me an opportunity
2:26
Speaker 3: to understand the importance between authority and influence because in
2:31
Speaker 3: that role I did not have direct authority because I
2:34
Speaker 3: reported up to the cheap operating officer, but because of
2:37
Speaker 3: my career, and because of the relationships I had felt
2:40
Speaker 3: I had influence, and so we were really able to
2:42
Speaker 3: use my direct influence to develop not just a plan,
2:47
Speaker 3: but a strategy to how the city would mobilize differently
2:52
Speaker 3: and looking not just at the city but all of
2:53
Speaker 3: his agencies, including Atlanta Housing invest Atlanta Atlanta Beltline, the
2:58
Speaker 3: Fulton County, City of Atlanta, Lampicuthority, but how these agencies
3:01
Speaker 3: would take their collective powers and capacity and really do
3:06
Speaker 3: something different to address affordability in the city. And so,
3:09
Speaker 3: you know, I'm proud of the work we led. You know,
3:12
Speaker 3: we invested in that tenure. We invested close to one
3:16
Speaker 3: point two billion dollars, and that was in public as
3:19
Speaker 3: well as private funds. We created, created and or preserved
3:25
Speaker 3: over seven thousand units. Those are units that were either
3:28
Speaker 3: completed or underdeveloped by the end of my ten years
3:31
Speaker 3: chief Housing Officer. And we also were able to set
3:34
Speaker 3: forth policy initiatives that I believe, quite honestly, has helped
3:38
Speaker 3: on the trajectory that we're on today.
3:41
Speaker 4: You know, clearly it's not enough.
3:42
Speaker 3: We are still as a city, as a country, fighting
3:45
Speaker 3: a crisis that quite honestly is in front of us.
3:48
Speaker 3: And running faster than we are. But it definitely was
3:51
Speaker 3: a huge down payment. And you know, when I think
3:54
Speaker 3: about the work that I was able to leave as
3:56
Speaker 3: Chief Housing Officer, really was quite honestly indirec alignment with
4:01
Speaker 3: me moving over to the House in authority about four
4:03
Speaker 3: years ago to serve as the Chief Operating Officer. I
4:06
Speaker 3: remember my predecessor at that time, Jeene Jones, asking me
4:10
Speaker 3: if I had ever thought about being the Chief Operating
4:12
Speaker 3: Officer of Atlanta Housing, and I said, well, Gane, quite honestly,
4:15
Speaker 3: I thought about being the Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta Housing.
4:18
Speaker 3: And you know, we had a conversation. He asked me,
4:22
Speaker 3: why didn't I pursue the role prior to him coming
4:24
Speaker 3: to Atlanta, And we had a very very honest conversation,
4:29
Speaker 3: and at the end of that conversation, it was clear
4:32
Speaker 3: to me that my place was at Atlanta Housing then
4:34
Speaker 3: as a COO, and I was grateful to take the
4:37
Speaker 3: helm over close to a year ago to be a
4:39
Speaker 3: year next week as Chief Executive Officer.
4:42
Speaker 2: Congratulations, it's an amazing journey. You have such a great platform,
4:46
Speaker 2: You've got the experience, you know, the Atlantic community. It
4:49
Speaker 2: is definitely a destiny timeline for you.
4:52
Speaker 4: Isn't it? You know it is.
4:55
Speaker 3: It's interesting you say that because I don't take it
4:57
Speaker 3: for granted, right, I do not take for granted the
5:00
Speaker 3: opportunity and quite honestly, the privilege that I've been placed
5:05
Speaker 3: in to serve, serve Atlanta, to serve our residents, and
5:10
Speaker 3: quite honestly, really make a difference in our community as
5:15
Speaker 3: a whole.
5:15
Speaker 4: And so you know, it's hard.
5:17
Speaker 3: It's hard, but as my chairman will often say, chairman
5:21
Speaker 3: on my board, is hard work. And because it's hard work,
5:24
Speaker 3: and because I absolutely love it, it is definitely it's
5:30
Speaker 3: definitely something that I truly enjoy. And I tell you,
5:33
Speaker 3: I read a book not too long ago, what does
5:35
Speaker 3: it mean when you give a person a chance? And
5:38
Speaker 3: literally that that's what I think about when I think
5:40
Speaker 3: about my career. But I think about the foundation of
5:42
Speaker 3: my career, which is really me growing up in Grandmy, Louisiana,
5:46
Speaker 3: understanding what it means when you afford a mother the
5:50
Speaker 3: opportunity to have stable housing to take care of her kids.
5:53
Speaker 3: It's really every every day I wake up, I think
5:55
Speaker 3: about my mom, and I think about the sacrifices that
5:58
Speaker 3: she made, and I also think about the fact that
6:00
Speaker 3: she was able to make those sacrifices because she didn't
6:02
Speaker 3: have to worry about having a roof over her head
6:05
Speaker 3: or providing for her children.
6:07
Speaker 2: It is an honor to do what we do, and
6:10
Speaker 2: it's even more unique when you've got the perspective. Tell
6:14
Speaker 2: us a little bit more, if you will, about your
6:17
Speaker 2: mom and the influence, like give us a sneak peeka
6:21
Speaker 2: to what's driving you and what's sustaining you here.
6:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I remember, and I shared this probably about
6:29
Speaker 3: a year ago, but I remember first time I shared it,
6:32
Speaker 3: quite honestly, But I remember being around three or four
6:35
Speaker 3: years old, and I remember being cold. That's like literally
6:39
Speaker 3: the memory I have in childhood. And that's because we
6:42
Speaker 3: lived in a mobile home and you know, many many
6:45
Speaker 3: people know mobile homes can be pretty drafty in the wintertime.
6:48
Speaker 3: And so I'm the youngest of three and my brother
6:50
Speaker 3: and my sister and I we will be, you know,
6:52
Speaker 3: kind of huddled around one of those little gas portable
6:55
Speaker 3: heaters just to make sure we were not cold. So
6:57
Speaker 3: I remember having layers and as a blanket on my
7:01
Speaker 3: bed because it was cold. And when I think about that,
7:05
Speaker 3: it wasn't because my mom wanted us to be cold.
7:07
Speaker 3: It was because that was you know, what we had
7:09
Speaker 3: at the time. And so when I was twelve years old,
7:12
Speaker 3: my mom received a loan from then it was old
7:18
Speaker 3: Rule Development. I believe it's fed her home administration now,
7:20
Speaker 3: but she received a loan to be able to purchase
7:24
Speaker 3: or to build rather a home that was on the
7:27
Speaker 3: land where that trailer was. And so to this day,
7:30
Speaker 3: my mom still has that house on the land where
7:34
Speaker 3: we were, you know, where we grew up on. But
7:37
Speaker 3: more importantly, it showed me. It showed me one a
7:42
Speaker 3: sense of pride, you know, just what the difference between
7:46
Speaker 3: walking walking up to a home that probably wasn't as
7:50
Speaker 3: esthetically pleased and quite honestly had so some concerns, some
7:54
Speaker 3: hashers and concerns, to our house that was stable.
7:58
Speaker 4: It also showed me.
8:01
Speaker 3: The sacrifice my mom made, the sacrifices that she made
8:04
Speaker 3: for me and my brother and my sister to make
8:07
Speaker 3: sure that we, you know, had better than what she had.
8:10
Speaker 3: And when I think about it, Katie, I think about
8:13
Speaker 3: the fact that I don't have any other choice. I
8:15
Speaker 3: don't have any other choice but to do the work
8:17
Speaker 3: that I do and to give back because somebody want
8:20
Speaker 3: helped my mom, but my mom also sacrifice so much
8:23
Speaker 3: for us. And you know, I grew up in Grambling
8:27
Speaker 3: and Grandma Louisianna, and ironically my mother is from Grandlin originally.
8:31
Speaker 3: And the thing that I love about Grambling is that
8:34
Speaker 3: despite the economic means or status that my family had,
8:37
Speaker 3: I never knew, right, I never knew outside of where
8:40
Speaker 3: we lived. I never really knew because my friends, my teachers,
8:45
Speaker 3: you know, my church, we were all treated the same.
8:47
Speaker 4: So before equity became a.
8:49
Speaker 3: You know, a term, I already knew what it meant
8:52
Speaker 3: when people had the same access and opportunity. It quite
8:55
Speaker 3: honestly wasn't until I went to graduate school at Jackson
8:59
Speaker 3: State University. I needed a way to pay for graduate
9:01
Speaker 3: school that I realized I couldn't just call home to
9:05
Speaker 3: get that payment. And so I was fortunate enough to
9:07
Speaker 3: receive a fellowship to attend graduate school, which really really
9:11
Speaker 3: kind of spearheaded me into this field of community and
9:16
Speaker 3: economic development. I wanted to be on to be in
9:19
Speaker 3: public finance. I love numbers. My team members to tell you, you
9:23
Speaker 3: can have a number on the board and I can
9:25
Speaker 3: tell you in the minute if it's right or wrong.
9:28
Speaker 3: But I had a chance to work with a gentleman,
9:30
Speaker 3: Harvey Johnson, who ironically was the first African American mayor
9:34
Speaker 3: of the city of Jackson years later, but he at
9:36
Speaker 3: that time, he was leading a nonprofit organization, Mississippi Institute
9:40
Speaker 3: for Small Towns, and they were responsible for administering federally
9:44
Speaker 3: funded grants all across the state of Mississippi from the
9:47
Speaker 3: Delta to the coast, helping people, you know, have better housing,
9:51
Speaker 3: have public facilities. Quite honestly, I'm running plumbing, you know,
9:54
Speaker 3: sewered things such as that city planning and so you know,
9:57
Speaker 3: at what age of twenty two, I'm literally, you know,
10:01
Speaker 3: helping folks in the Delta, Mississippi understand what it means
10:05
Speaker 3: to make a difference when you actually make an investment
10:08
Speaker 3: into the community, into the homes that they have, making
10:11
Speaker 3: sure they have running water and things such as that.
10:14
Speaker 3: So it it literally has been a ministry. It's been
10:18
Speaker 3: a calling that one that I ran for, ran from
10:22
Speaker 3: rather for quite some time, but one that I'm so
10:25
Speaker 3: happy didn't run for me, and I have the opportunity
10:28
Speaker 3: to really rest in it and do what I love.
10:31
Speaker 2: I love that you are leaning more into your story
10:35
Speaker 2: and you're sharing that. I too have sort of ran
10:40
Speaker 2: from the story and refuse to talk about my government
10:43
Speaker 2: cheese days. But where we are and what we're doing,
10:49
Speaker 2: we do have to come to terms with that, not
10:51
Speaker 2: just for ourselves, but to sustain us, to keep us
10:54
Speaker 2: going in for others to hear the impact of housing
10:58
Speaker 2: and what the lack of stability and the hope of
11:04
Speaker 2: stability can mean for others. So that leads me now
11:08
Speaker 2: to Atlanta. I have been to Atlanta so many times.
11:12
Speaker 2: I love the community, but the Atlanta market.
11:16
Speaker 4: There's a lot of other people who.
11:18
Speaker 2: Are loving Atlanta, and so this market has completely changed.
11:23
Speaker 2: As to what's happening, which is creating obviously the market
11:27
Speaker 2: tension for affordability. So why don't you describe just the
11:32
Speaker 2: state of affordable housing? How would you describe it? What's happening?
11:38
Speaker 2: Like you mentioned earlier, a lot of factors are contributing
11:42
Speaker 2: to what's going on. But give us what the needs.
11:45
Speaker 2: You guys have accomplished a lot, but there's still a
11:48
Speaker 2: lot to do. So give us kind of in your words,
11:51
Speaker 2: what the landscape is there?
11:53
Speaker 3: No, absolutely, So I've had the privilege of being in
11:56
Speaker 3: the city for a little over twenty years now, and
11:58
Speaker 3: quite honestly came to Atlanta, traveled to Atlanta to start
12:02
Speaker 3: my career with the City of Atlanta as Director of
12:04
Speaker 3: Housing at that time, and at that time, the office
12:07
Speaker 3: was responsible for administering the federally funded programs under from
12:12
Speaker 3: HUD under CDBG, Community Development Block Grant and the Home Program,
12:17
Speaker 3: And so I've also had an opportunity to be on
12:20
Speaker 3: the front end of a lot of the housing plans
12:23
Speaker 3: or implementation strategies that have been developed in the city.
12:26
Speaker 3: And the one thing that I that I've continued to
12:29
Speaker 3: see is that the city has continued to grow. The
12:32
Speaker 3: metropolitan region has grown significantly over the last decade, and
12:36
Speaker 3: the city has had its fair share of that growth
12:38
Speaker 3: as well. Our population has grown from a little close
12:42
Speaker 3: to four hundred to about right around fourhunred thousand to
12:44
Speaker 3: close to five hundred thousand people, and with that growth
12:48
Speaker 3: becomes different pressures, right. The second thing I've seen is
12:52
Speaker 3: the fact that we've had a lot of growth, but
12:54
Speaker 3: wage growth hasn't kept up with it. You know, we're
12:56
Speaker 3: in a state where minimum wage is still right around
12:59
Speaker 3: seven dollars in two five cents an hour. However, you know,
13:03
Speaker 3: if you want to afford a one bedroom. I believe
13:06
Speaker 3: the last report I saw from the National Income Housing
13:09
Speaker 3: Coalition that in order to afford a one bedroom in Atlanta,
13:13
Speaker 3: you need to work close to eighty hours a week
13:16
Speaker 3: in order to afford to one for a person at
13:19
Speaker 3: a certain income level to afford a one bedroom. And
13:21
Speaker 3: so wage growth is also a problem. The second is
13:24
Speaker 3: just the market. I mean, the third brother is the
13:26
Speaker 3: market itself. You know, we we literally came from a
13:30
Speaker 3: recession to well, Atlanta was on a boom. Atlanta was
13:34
Speaker 3: at a very very high boom prior to the recession.
13:37
Speaker 3: And during the recession, what we saw was the you know,
13:41
Speaker 3: a lot of the market you know, really settled and
13:45
Speaker 3: stabilized and declined. However, the need didn't because from your
13:51
Speaker 3: standpoint about a lot of people love in Atlanta. We
13:53
Speaker 3: saw a lot of investor activity coming in and actually
13:58
Speaker 3: acquiring available properties, be it rental and or rental developments
14:04
Speaker 3: and or single family homes. And so that again has
14:07
Speaker 3: brought a lot of pressure to our market. I think,
14:10
Speaker 3: you know, the one thing that I look at though,
14:13
Speaker 3: is that, you know, Atlanta, I kind of chronicle it
14:16
Speaker 3: to the what Atlanta has afforded and blessed me with
14:19
Speaker 3: Atlanta is still full of opportunities. And when you think about,
14:22
Speaker 3: you know, the leadership that we have at the MORA level,
14:26
Speaker 3: this is the first time that I've seen political will
14:28
Speaker 3: and political resources collide in such a way that something
14:32
Speaker 3: is happening at a rapid pace to be able to
14:35
Speaker 3: address the affordabilities issues here in our city. You know,
14:39
Speaker 3: our mayor has a goal of twenty thousand yunits through
14:42
Speaker 3: the course of his term in office, and Atlanta Housing
14:45
Speaker 3: is contributing to that goal along with our other partners,
14:49
Speaker 3: be it Invested Atlanta and or the belt Line. We
14:51
Speaker 3: also are just being smarter, right, you know, how do
14:54
Speaker 3: you look at zoning policy and you utilize zoning policy
14:58
Speaker 3: to make sure that it can stimulate the market and
15:02
Speaker 3: not choke the market. You know, Third, I'll say permitting.
15:05
Speaker 3: You know, one of the things I tell my team
15:07
Speaker 3: all the time is that you know, we have to
15:10
Speaker 3: make quick, knowledgeable decisions. And those quick knowledgeable decisions also
15:13
Speaker 3: look at what we have to do for a bureaucratic
15:15
Speaker 3: policy standpoint, and so time kills deals, and so we
15:19
Speaker 3: have to make sure our permitting process is improved and
15:22
Speaker 3: moving at such a rate that it's not choking any
15:26
Speaker 3: development activity, but it's actually lending to those to development activity.
15:30
Speaker 2: And you have a good dynamic because people want to
15:33
Speaker 2: move to Atlanta. You have developers who want to be there,
15:36
Speaker 2: you because have got great market momentum. So, like you said,
15:40
Speaker 2: if you can solve the permitting and the zoning and
15:43
Speaker 2: the logistics to get that shovel movie, I've seen a
15:48
Speaker 2: lot of ribbon cuttings you guys have been doing. So
15:51
Speaker 2: you're chipping away at that twenty thousand units for sure.
15:55
Speaker 3: Absolutely, l Katie, let me say this, you have a
15:57
Speaker 3: lot of people who want to come to Atlanta, but
15:59
Speaker 3: you also have a lot of great people who are
16:00
Speaker 3: in Atlanta who deserve the opportunity to grow and prosper
16:05
Speaker 3: in the neighborhoods that they labored in. And so one
16:08
Speaker 3: of the things that I'm really proud of is that,
16:11
Speaker 3: you know, as a city, we're intentional about, you know,
16:14
Speaker 3: talking about gentrification and displacement and understanding what we need
16:18
Speaker 3: to do differently to make sure that folks can stay
16:21
Speaker 3: in the communities that they that they've actually labored in,
16:24
Speaker 3: because that's so so important as.
16:26
Speaker 4: The city developed, you know, the city.
16:29
Speaker 3: When I think about Atlanta, I think about when I
16:31
Speaker 3: first came to the city so many years ago. I remember,
16:35
Speaker 3: you know, property taxes were not the issue that they
16:38
Speaker 3: are now, right, you know, you would have you know,
16:40
Speaker 3: there are some cases now where you may have a
16:42
Speaker 3: senior citizen that owned that owns their home, but the
16:45
Speaker 3: property taxes are so astronomical that it literally makes it unaffordable.
16:51
Speaker 3: And so we have to be intentional about addressing all issues.
16:54
Speaker 3: So it's not just about preserving or developing new affordable housing.
16:58
Speaker 3: It's also about making sure that you preserve the opportunity
17:01
Speaker 3: for the people who have who have dwelled in our
17:03
Speaker 3: communities to be able to stay in our communities. And
17:05
Speaker 3: we have to treat it equally. We have to treat
17:07
Speaker 3: it with just as much as respect, if not more,
17:10
Speaker 3: as we are people who are looking to come to Atlanta.
17:13
Speaker 2: Right you you bring up an excellent point about how
17:18
Speaker 2: communities are accessible and equitable for within the community, for
17:23
Speaker 2: the existing residents, and what can be done. Like if
17:27
Speaker 2: you you know, if you are doing a new development
17:30
Speaker 2: in a neighborhood, you know, how do you approach that
17:34
Speaker 2: or how do you try to make sure that you
17:38
Speaker 2: have housing initiatives that are accessible and equitable for all
17:43
Speaker 2: parts of that community.
17:44
Speaker 4: Now that's a great question.
17:46
Speaker 3: So first off, the first thing you do is you
17:48
Speaker 3: made sure that you that you remain a part of
17:50
Speaker 3: the community.
17:50
Speaker 4: Right.
17:51
Speaker 3: I've seen a lot of development developers go into a
17:54
Speaker 3: community and create a standalone development, and that's not what
17:56
Speaker 3: you do. You, you know, be very intentional about making
18:00
Speaker 3: sure that the new development opportunity is woven into the
18:03
Speaker 3: fabric of the existing community and that it is an
18:07
Speaker 3: enhancement and not necessarily a complete takeover. Secondly, from a
18:12
Speaker 3: policy perspective, you know, back to property taxes, we have
18:15
Speaker 3: in Atlanta, we have an anti displacement program that really
18:19
Speaker 3: focuses in on how you cap property taxes that are
18:23
Speaker 3: certain value, that are a certain amount as development is occurring,
18:26
Speaker 3: so that as that development occurs and quite honestly becomes
18:30
Speaker 3: becomes even more prominent homeowners existing homeowners are not forced
18:35
Speaker 3: out of the community because they're able to afford their
18:39
Speaker 3: property taxes. And then, you know, we know one of
18:43
Speaker 3: the things that we see in many of our communities
18:45
Speaker 3: are the need for unler occupier rehabilitation. A lot of
18:49
Speaker 3: our seniors as well as some of our meeting income
18:52
Speaker 3: families are not able to afford just some necessary improvements
18:56
Speaker 3: to their home. And so making sure that you have
18:58
Speaker 3: funding available for owner your pri rehabilitation as well to
19:02
Speaker 3: be able to help help maintain and be able to
19:04
Speaker 3: keep someone in the house.
19:05
Speaker 4: And then just education.
19:07
Speaker 3: Every day, literally every day, and two or three times
19:10
Speaker 3: a day, I'm getting phone calls from someone asking me
19:12
Speaker 3: if I want to sell my home, and every nine decadie,
19:16
Speaker 3: I just want to have fun with it. I'll tell them, absolutely,
19:18
Speaker 3: give me a million dollars and I'll sell.
19:19
Speaker 2: It to me.
19:20
Speaker 3: And then and the audacity they got me one day
19:23
Speaker 3: was the gentleman said, well, do you have an appraisal
19:25
Speaker 3: for that amount?
19:26
Speaker 4: Oh? Like, are you kidding me? You know, no, No,
19:28
Speaker 4: I'm not in a million dollar home.
19:29
Speaker 3: But the fact that you continue to keep the conversation
19:32
Speaker 3: going with me lets me know how you're actually becoming
19:35
Speaker 3: a predator among folks.
19:38
Speaker 4: Who may not know right.
19:39
Speaker 3: And so just really making sure that we do a
19:43
Speaker 3: really good job of community education, make sure people know
19:47
Speaker 3: what resources are available, if they have questions, who they
19:49
Speaker 3: should call. Here in the City of Atlanta, we started
19:52
Speaker 3: the Mayor's office started a Housing Help Center, and that's
19:55
Speaker 3: where people literally have somewhere to go if they need assistance,
19:59
Speaker 3: if they need help, and the Housing Health Center serves
20:02
Speaker 3: as a clearing house to know which calls should come
20:05
Speaker 3: to Atlanta house and which calls should go directly to
20:07
Speaker 3: the city from a cold enforcement building permit in are zoning,
20:11
Speaker 3: a planning perspective, which calls should go to.
20:15
Speaker 4: Invest Atlanta.
20:16
Speaker 3: So it's really, it's really how do you throw a
20:19
Speaker 3: group and I hate the time to say this, but
20:21
Speaker 3: because the mayor uses this term a lot, but how
20:23
Speaker 3: do you take a group project approach to making sure
20:27
Speaker 3: that you are addressing every aspect that will touch a
20:30
Speaker 3: person's life and that will enable and that will help
20:34
Speaker 3: to enable them accomplish the dream of not just having
20:37
Speaker 3: affordable housing, but having a sustainable environment.
20:41
Speaker 2: Let's talk about investment. You guys have a HUD choice
20:45
Speaker 2: neighborhoods grant and for people who may not be familiar,
20:49
Speaker 2: just tell us how this community right vitalization is such
20:54
Speaker 2: a huge overall contributor to what you're doing. Tell us,
20:59
Speaker 2: Tell what's what you're doing, how you've leveraged partnerships, what's
21:02
Speaker 2: gonna look like, get us a good update on that,
21:05
Speaker 2: because that is a big win for you guys.
21:07
Speaker 4: Clue.
21:08
Speaker 3: So we have two trust neighborhood implementation grant. So the
21:12
Speaker 3: first choice neighbor of implementation grant is the former University Homes. Ironically,
21:17
Speaker 3: it was a co application with the city, with the
21:19
Speaker 3: City of Atlanta, and I was the lead on the
21:21
Speaker 3: city side working with the housing authority. But what is
21:24
Speaker 3: so specially unique about University Homes is that it is
21:28
Speaker 3: the first public housing site for black people in the
21:31
Speaker 3: state of Georgia and in the country. And so in
21:34
Speaker 3: two thousand, I believe twenty fifteen, we were awarded a
21:38
Speaker 3: thirty million dollar grant from HUD that has been leveraged
21:41
Speaker 3: against close to four hundred and fifty million dollars, and
21:45
Speaker 3: that leverage amount has done so much because the beautiful
21:48
Speaker 3: thing about choice, it's not just about the housing on
21:50
Speaker 3: the former or the vacant public housing site. It really
21:53
Speaker 3: takes into consideration the surrounding neighborhood as well as the
21:58
Speaker 3: residents within the surround the neighborhood and the former residents
22:01
Speaker 3: of the public housing site. And so today we've developed
22:04
Speaker 3: right around six hundred units of multi family housing. We're
22:09
Speaker 3: in our last phase of multi family housing. Now we
22:12
Speaker 3: should break ground probably early fall on the home ownership component.
22:18
Speaker 3: We have about forty town homes that we'll be building,
22:21
Speaker 3: and when we think about the six hundred units, we're
22:23
Speaker 3: looking at about sixty percent of affordability across that site.
22:28
Speaker 3: The beautiful thing about university homes as well is now
22:31
Speaker 3: called Ashley a Scholars Landing. But there was a remaining
22:34
Speaker 3: community building from the original footprint of the public housing site,
22:38
Speaker 3: which was called Roosevelt Hall, and so we were able
22:42
Speaker 3: to renovate Atlanta Housing renovated historic Roosevelt Hall two years
22:47
Speaker 3: ago and literally that was one of the first projects
22:50
Speaker 3: I took on when I became chief operating officer. But
22:52
Speaker 3: we were able to renovate that property utilizing our hud
22:55
Speaker 3: dollars of funding from the city to a sustainable building.
23:00
Speaker 3: It actually is a LEAD certified building. And what I
23:05
Speaker 3: love about it is when we have residents from who
23:08
Speaker 3: lived at university homes or residents who lived anywhere of
23:11
Speaker 3: our public house and properties, when they come to that building,
23:14
Speaker 3: the first scene they remind us is you cared enough
23:18
Speaker 3: to preserve something that was important to us. And so
23:20
Speaker 3: that is so critically important to preserve the history of
23:24
Speaker 3: what we can, but it also speaks to what can happen,
23:27
Speaker 3: and so, you know, the beautiful thing again about choice
23:29
Speaker 3: is that it really stimulates the neighborhood itself, and so
23:33
Speaker 3: you're looking at it from an economic development perspective as
23:35
Speaker 3: well as retail. Our second choice neighborhood grant is Boeing Homes.
23:40
Speaker 3: Bowing Homes was demolished in two thousand and nine and
23:43
Speaker 3: set vacant for about fifteen years until we started the
23:46
Speaker 3: planning process and was able to receive our second choice
23:50
Speaker 3: neighborhood immumentation grant.
23:51
Speaker 4: The city is also serving as a co lead.
23:53
Speaker 3: We're projected to have about two thousand homes on that site.
23:57
Speaker 3: We're right at about a forty percent affordability. The ten
24:00
Speaker 3: percent of the units that will be created will be
24:03
Speaker 3: created for her ownership. But again, the thing that I
24:06
Speaker 3: love the most is that it will be catalytic for
24:09
Speaker 3: neighborhood transformation. Alone that corridor, it is probably maybe three
24:14
Speaker 3: blocks from the largest city owned park. You literally are
24:20
Speaker 3: in the cradle of the West Side community and it
24:23
Speaker 3: gives us an opportunity to marry housing, economic empowerment opportunities,
24:28
Speaker 3: retail and neighborhood civilization efforts.
24:32
Speaker 4: All in one.
24:33
Speaker 3: We will be breaking ground on the first phase of
24:35
Speaker 3: Bulling Homes in March. Well, I'm sorry we're doing the
24:39
Speaker 3: official groundbreaking in March because we already have shovels in
24:41
Speaker 3: the ground now. I was at the site earlier this
24:44
Speaker 3: week with one of my colleagues from Boston to share
24:47
Speaker 3: with them the work that we're doing. And they're literally
24:50
Speaker 3: a breaking ground on phase one of Bowling Homes, which
24:52
Speaker 3: would be about one hundred and fifty units of house
24:54
Speaker 3: of rental housing.
24:56
Speaker 2: What an honor to be able to see this. But
24:59
Speaker 2: I'm shirt it's come with some pains and some lessons
25:02
Speaker 2: learned here. You know, everybody likes to see the shovel
25:07
Speaker 2: ready and the ribbon cutting, But what are you learning
25:11
Speaker 2: on the impact of the community engagement so far? What
25:15
Speaker 2: are they saying? You know, you mentioned one example. What
25:19
Speaker 2: else are you hearing from the community?
25:21
Speaker 4: You know?
25:21
Speaker 3: So Atlanta is very strong on community engagement and community voice.
25:26
Speaker 3: We have a system called the Neighborhood Planning Unit System,
25:30
Speaker 3: which I always I used to jokingly refer to as
25:33
Speaker 3: the fourth or government for the city of Atlanta because
25:36
Speaker 3: it's a very strong network, but it provides such a
25:40
Speaker 3: needed and pivotal voice, especially while we're in this moment
25:44
Speaker 3: moment of time. And so what we're hearing from the community,
25:46
Speaker 3: not just at going homes, not just a university homes
25:49
Speaker 3: or any of our other sites. What we're hearing is
25:52
Speaker 3: we want you to plan with us, not on top
25:55
Speaker 3: of us. And we want to make sure that we
25:57
Speaker 3: have a voice in time of developing activity that will
26:01
Speaker 3: be coming to our community and how our community will
26:04
Speaker 3: ultimately look.
26:05
Speaker 4: And we also want to make sure we have a place.
26:08
Speaker 3: So you know what the three key things I've taken
26:10
Speaker 3: away is playing with us, make sure that you know
26:14
Speaker 3: our voice is heard and not just heard, but actually
26:17
Speaker 3: acted upon, even if it's not everything. Let us know
26:20
Speaker 3: that we're doing this in partnership together. And then also
26:23
Speaker 3: make sure that we have a place that we can
26:25
Speaker 3: also benefit and be able to participate in the growth
26:28
Speaker 3: of the communities that we've been in.
26:30
Speaker 2: Okay, excellent, And I've seen a lot of communities do
26:33
Speaker 2: it really really well. When they take it in a
26:36
Speaker 2: step by step process, they you know, have access to
26:40
Speaker 2: have the voices at the table. It can be collaborative,
26:44
Speaker 2: it slows it down a little, but you also are
26:48
Speaker 2: able to approach what everything from what it looks like.
26:52
Speaker 2: We're sidewalks, you know, can you get an additional transit
26:57
Speaker 2: stop if there wasn't already one? So you know, it
27:00
Speaker 2: is a great beneficial process. What about the stadium hotel?
27:07
Speaker 2: Tell us what's going on with that, because that's been
27:09
Speaker 2: a fixture of Atlanta Skyline for quite some time. Of
27:14
Speaker 2: what's happening in that.
27:16
Speaker 4: Project?
27:17
Speaker 3: No, absolutely, So when we adopted our strategic plan and
27:21
Speaker 3: I led the development of that as chief operating Officer,
27:23
Speaker 3: we were intentional about saying Atlanta Housing would create and
27:27
Speaker 3: preserve ten thousand units of affordable housing within a five
27:30
Speaker 3: year period. And so a part of that was looking
27:33
Speaker 3: at how do we leverage existing resources. So we had
27:35
Speaker 3: about three hundred and seventy acres a former public housing
27:40
Speaker 3: that was just vacant that the units have been demolished
27:43
Speaker 3: and the land had said vacant for quite some time,
27:46
Speaker 3: and so we were like, we knew that we had
27:48
Speaker 3: the opportunity to populate housing from that aspect. We also
27:51
Speaker 3: knew that we had the opportunity to preserve affordable housing
27:54
Speaker 3: just from my existing portfolio that was aging. But then
27:58
Speaker 3: at the same time, we wanted to be strategic about
28:00
Speaker 3: looking at proactive acquisitions.
28:02
Speaker 4: And so the.
28:04
Speaker 3: Stadium Hotel is in an area of opportunity where we
28:07
Speaker 3: would deem an area of opportunity, and it really gives
28:10
Speaker 3: us the ability to provide affordable housing next to quite
28:15
Speaker 3: honestly a tremendous amount of market rate housing, retail transit.
28:22
Speaker 3: Georgia State University actually is our neighbor as well. But
28:26
Speaker 3: it gives us the ability to infuse affordability in a
28:29
Speaker 3: neighborhood is that is that is actually losing affordability. It
28:34
Speaker 3: also because of the hotel and the attached garage and
28:37
Speaker 3: some other land it gives us some ability to think
28:39
Speaker 3: larger than just the renovation of the existing footprint. But
28:43
Speaker 3: how can we maximize any type of development opportunity along
28:46
Speaker 3: that site. We acquired the hotel in August, I believe
28:50
Speaker 3: of last year, August of last year, and we issued
28:53
Speaker 3: a request for a proposal for development concepts and ideas
28:57
Speaker 3: in November, and we will actually have those concepts in
28:59
Speaker 3: our back in our hands on February seventeenth of this year,
29:04
Speaker 3: so we can move forward with a development opportunity. What
29:07
Speaker 3: I really like about the Stadium hotel. Is that it's
29:10
Speaker 3: an opportunity for us to come in and quite honestly
29:13
Speaker 3: be very creative and innovative as to what we would
29:16
Speaker 3: like to see programmed. We were very we were not
29:19
Speaker 3: as descriptive in the RFP because we want the best
29:22
Speaker 3: thinking and the best ideas. But we do believe, we
29:26
Speaker 3: do believe we have the capacity to create at a
29:29
Speaker 3: minimum two hundred and thirty minits of housing on that site.
29:33
Speaker 2: Wow, that is going to be just an amazing sort
29:37
Speaker 2: of like a comprehensive part for that neighborhood, isn't it.
29:41
Speaker 4: Yeah?
29:41
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, And just its location right because it's central
29:46
Speaker 3: to the downtown area. And also, quite honestly, if you
29:48
Speaker 3: think about the world that the fact that Atlanta will
29:50
Speaker 3: be hosting the World Cup, it gives us an opportunity
29:53
Speaker 3: to activate the site to complement the city and others
29:56
Speaker 3: efforts as we go through the World Cup.
29:59
Speaker 4: So I have a Q.
30:00
Speaker 2: What do you think I mean, Georgian's Atlanta the community
30:05
Speaker 2: on a macro level? What you know, there's growing bipartisan support.
30:11
Speaker 2: You know it sounds like you guys have a strategic plan,
30:14
Speaker 2: You've got numbers, You've got the goals, you've got development
30:17
Speaker 2: like all of the things are aligning. Are there specific
30:21
Speaker 2: legislative opportunities though or funding? And is that Atlanta Housing
30:27
Speaker 2: is saying, Hey, this isn't just my Christmas wish list.
30:31
Speaker 2: You know what do you see on that realm?
30:35
Speaker 4: Excellent question?
30:36
Speaker 3: So you know you're right. We have a strategic plan.
30:38
Speaker 3: But anyone who knows me knows I believe in execution
30:41
Speaker 3: and implementation. And so when you think about our goal
30:44
Speaker 3: of ten thousand units, we're at sixty six percent of
30:46
Speaker 3: that goal right now today, but more needs to be done.
30:50
Speaker 3: So from a legislative and a policy perspective, one of
30:53
Speaker 3: the things that I would love to see done at
30:55
Speaker 3: the state level source of income protections. Right now, in
30:58
Speaker 3: the state of Georgia and the City of Atlanta and
31:00
Speaker 3: across other cities and municipalities within Georgia, a landlord, a
31:04
Speaker 3: property owner has the right to deny individual or a
31:08
Speaker 3: housing trust volutu or access to their property or access
31:10
Speaker 3: to renting their units. That needs to change, right, That
31:14
Speaker 3: definitely needs to change. Second thing I would love to
31:17
Speaker 3: see is more investment from the state level into housing.
31:22
Speaker 3: When you think about the surplus we have at the state,
31:24
Speaker 3: if we're able to increase the amount of funding to
31:27
Speaker 3: the Housing Trust Fund and also supplement that funding with
31:30
Speaker 3: the Loyalcome Housing tax credit or the taxes ubun program
31:33
Speaker 3: that the State of maniators, it literally would stretch the
31:38
Speaker 3: resources and give us the ability to provide more problem
31:41
Speaker 3: at affordable housing. And then the last thing I'll add,
31:44
Speaker 3: and please know that there's much more tomorre. We can
31:46
Speaker 3: probably have a day long conversation about it. But what
31:49
Speaker 3: we don't talk enough about is how do you really
31:54
Speaker 3: be become very intentional about making sure someone has a
31:57
Speaker 3: home today on public subsident system, but then we graduate
32:01
Speaker 3: them from that so that they can be in a
32:04
Speaker 3: more economic, self suffice, self sufficient environment. And the way
32:08
Speaker 3: to do that is to really marry our affordable housing
32:11
Speaker 3: programs with some level of workforce and or educational attainment
32:15
Speaker 3: or development opportunity so that we can be more intentional
32:19
Speaker 3: and creative by increasing people's economic wealth and being to
32:24
Speaker 3: be able to give them the ability to be self
32:26
Speaker 3: sustaining on their own without public assistance.
32:29
Speaker 2: And it's interesting because you know, housing used to be
32:31
Speaker 2: just like maintain it, build it up, you know, you know,
32:36
Speaker 2: go through the move in process. But now you guys
32:39
Speaker 2: are developers. Now you're advocates. Now you're working for legislation
32:43
Speaker 2: to renovate your I mean like completely redo the tools.
32:47
Speaker 2: By what you have to do it? How do you
32:51
Speaker 2: keep your team moving forward with everything that you guys
32:56
Speaker 2: have to do. You have the need and you have
32:59
Speaker 2: the drive, but yet you guys are innovators, so you
33:03
Speaker 2: clearly are a charismatic leader, but like, how do you
33:06
Speaker 2: translate this now to your team with everything that's on
33:10
Speaker 2: on the horizon here?
33:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know it's coming into the CEO seed.
33:16
Speaker 3: Especially after serving as Chief Operating Officer, I knew that
33:21
Speaker 3: the majority of my team members saw me as somebody
33:23
Speaker 3: who is, oh my god, she's gonna get it done
33:26
Speaker 3: and she's gonna make us get it done now.
33:27
Speaker 4: And I am.
33:29
Speaker 3: But it's clear though that my team needed to hear
33:32
Speaker 3: my message and they needed to understand who I am
33:35
Speaker 3: at my core and at my heart. And so on
33:38
Speaker 3: day two of assuming my role, we had a town hall,
33:41
Speaker 3: and if a town hall, the leadership team actually was
33:44
Speaker 3: there to help greet all of our team members and
33:47
Speaker 3: welcome them in into the venue. But more importantly, when
33:51
Speaker 3: I was there to give a message, and that message
33:53
Speaker 3: was Today Tomorrow Together, and it was really giving, you know,
34:00
Speaker 3: just honor to where we are right now today as
34:02
Speaker 3: an agency and the contributions that have been made by
34:05
Speaker 3: so many and quite honestly, the shoulders that I stand on.
34:09
Speaker 4: You know what those contributions are. But where do we
34:11
Speaker 4: want to go tomorrow?
34:12
Speaker 3: What do we want if we want to move from
34:14
Speaker 3: good to great? What does that mean? What does that
34:16
Speaker 3: look like? And what will that take? The first thing
34:20
Speaker 3: it would take is everyone even understanding what our vision
34:23
Speaker 3: and mission is and understanding what our goals are and
34:26
Speaker 3: understanding what their part is in it. And then how
34:30
Speaker 3: do we get to tomorrow? Well, one thing we can't
34:32
Speaker 3: do is think tomorrow is gonna be be me by myself.
34:36
Speaker 3: If it's me by myself, then we have a problem.
34:38
Speaker 3: I can only get to tomorrow if my team is
34:41
Speaker 3: standing with me and putting forth the energy and the
34:45
Speaker 3: effort to make sure that we can serve the families
34:47
Speaker 3: that we need to serve, and quite honestly, we can
34:49
Speaker 3: serve each other. And so I have really led this
34:52
Speaker 3: last year and will continue to lead on the message
34:56
Speaker 3: of Today Tomorrow Together. But more importantly, I will lead,
35:00
Speaker 3: and they're very transparent since as well as in a
35:04
Speaker 3: sense of accountability and celebrating the.
35:06
Speaker 4: Successes we have.
35:07
Speaker 3: And so you know, we are really big on making
35:10
Speaker 3: sure that the team as a whole understands the contributions
35:15
Speaker 3: they've made. With my leadership team, I'm one hundred percent
35:19
Speaker 3: empowering my leadership team to help help help support me
35:23
Speaker 3: to lead this agency. You know, ironically, around Christmas time,
35:27
Speaker 3: I am I had I had the flu, and so
35:30
Speaker 3: it took me down really, really bad. And at the
35:33
Speaker 3: same time, we were planning in our holiday celebration for
35:36
Speaker 3: the team members. And so the first call I received, well, wa, Tyran,
35:40
Speaker 3: do you want us to cancel because you can't be here?
35:42
Speaker 3: I said, absolutely not, absolutely not, because I have pushed
35:47
Speaker 3: us as an agency so hard this year that we
35:50
Speaker 3: need to take a moment to celebrate each other. And
35:52
Speaker 3: so they were nice enough to allow me to have
35:55
Speaker 3: a video, a video to video message to share with
35:59
Speaker 3: the staff. And what I shared with the staff is
36:01
Speaker 3: that I was taking my own advice. If you don't
36:03
Speaker 3: feel well, stay at home, but please know that I'm
36:07
Speaker 3: so proud of you and I'm so proud of the
36:09
Speaker 3: work that we've lifted up together. More important than the work,
36:13
Speaker 3: I'm probably of the impact of who we're growing to
36:16
Speaker 3: be and I was I was happy that they streamed
36:19
Speaker 3: the event lives. I was able to see it and
36:22
Speaker 3: the joy I saw so many of our team members'
36:24
Speaker 3: faces just being able to participate on you know, the
36:27
Speaker 3: awards or who won Employee of the Year. We have
36:31
Speaker 3: a charitable giving campaign and so we acknowledged the two
36:35
Speaker 3: individuals who gave the most amount to the charitable giving
36:39
Speaker 3: campaign when we established the CEO Award. We even had
36:43
Speaker 3: an ugly sweater contest and they were creative. One of
36:48
Speaker 3: our team members had her ugly sweater was was pictures
36:53
Speaker 3: of all the former public housing sites.
36:55
Speaker 4: So she we had original pictures.
36:59
Speaker 3: Bayhead of holes of herdon all on our sweater. And
37:02
Speaker 3: so I share that with you because you know, we
37:06
Speaker 3: work hard. We work really, really hard, but we are
37:08
Speaker 3: going to celebrate each other and we're going to make
37:11
Speaker 3: sure that we lift the organization up. And I'm also
37:14
Speaker 3: aware that Atlanta Housing is it for everybody, and I
37:18
Speaker 3: understand that and I respect that, but for the folks
37:21
Speaker 3: that it is for, we're going to give our all
37:23
Speaker 3: to help make sure we lift our residents up and
37:26
Speaker 3: that we help support each other because again, this is
37:29
Speaker 3: hard work, but it's also hard work, and so that's
37:33
Speaker 3: what we lean in on every day.
37:36
Speaker 2: And that employee engagement matters because they bring that into
37:40
Speaker 2: the quality of how they have customer service, how they
37:43
Speaker 2: inspect units, how they answer the phone, I mean everything.
37:46
Speaker 2: So employee engagement can not be overlooked on any realm
37:51
Speaker 2: because it's just it's a better program, better compliance when
37:54
Speaker 2: your employees are engaged. So I'm glad you're I'm glad
37:57
Speaker 2: that's a the component of your or values. Uh you
38:01
Speaker 2: mentioned grassroots efforts. I couldn't. I couldn't go on without
38:05
Speaker 2: talking about Uh, you have several prominent resident association leaders
38:12
Speaker 2: and community advocates. Uh. Do you want to highlight a
38:15
Speaker 2: few of those for us? Because every community has them,
38:20
Speaker 2: but you've got I think you I think you recently
38:24
Speaker 2: named a development for one of them. Do you want
38:27
Speaker 2: to share some of that because that's a beautiful story.
38:31
Speaker 4: Yeah.
38:31
Speaker 3: Absolutely, we We actually broke ground on this development back
38:35
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two, but it was what it was
38:38
Speaker 3: named to the when it was named for gimme Anita
38:41
Speaker 3: Gardner Village and Anita Gardner was a member of the
38:45
Speaker 3: Adamsville community for years. And I remember at the groundbreaking
38:50
Speaker 3: sharing my sharing words, and what what struck me was
38:53
Speaker 3: the dash right, so we're you know, she was born
38:57
Speaker 3: and then she she left us to go to eternity.
39:00
Speaker 3: But what did she do with that dash? What did
39:02
Speaker 3: she do with the time in between? And the time
39:04
Speaker 3: in between she was a school teacher, but the time
39:06
Speaker 3: in between, she made a footprint and making sure that
39:11
Speaker 3: her community, in her neighborhood had a voice. She made
39:14
Speaker 3: a footprint and making sure that she was an advocate
39:17
Speaker 3: for those who couldn't be an advocate for themselves. And
39:20
Speaker 3: what was interesting is we didn't you know Atlanta House.
39:23
Speaker 3: In order did the developer make the decision to rename
39:27
Speaker 3: the property, we'll need a Gardner. The community came to
39:30
Speaker 3: us and said, hey, we have to give homage. We
39:32
Speaker 3: have to give respect to someone who labored so long
39:36
Speaker 3: and so hard and who fought for developing development opportunities
39:40
Speaker 3: like these to be in our community. And that's what
39:42
Speaker 3: it's really all about. So you know, what we were
39:43
Speaker 3: able to do is we were able to give respect
39:47
Speaker 3: tim missus Gardner, but also we were able to honor
39:50
Speaker 3: her legacy. And there are so many legacies like that
39:53
Speaker 3: in Atlanta. I will tell you so, so many. And
39:57
Speaker 3: I'm grateful that we're able to do that because it's
40:00
Speaker 3: really our past. It it forms our present, and the
40:03
Speaker 3: fact that we're able to honor our pass lets me
40:06
Speaker 3: know that we'll be able to even do greater things
40:07
Speaker 3: in our present as well as our future.
40:09
Speaker 4: Right.
40:10
Speaker 2: And it's a motivator for the next Oneita, Right, So
40:14
Speaker 2: you know, you've got this next generation here too that
40:18
Speaker 2: you know, want to serve, want to be involved, but
40:21
Speaker 2: maybe they don't know what or how. But when they
40:25
Speaker 2: can look to a Janita Gardener and see what she's done,
40:28
Speaker 2: they're like, Okay, you know, I can make my own map.
40:32
Speaker 2: So I think it's a you're right, legacy building. But
40:34
Speaker 2: it's also feeding in, isn't it.
40:36
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
40:37
Speaker 3: But we have another development, And as you were speaking,
40:40
Speaker 3: this came to mind. So when I came to Atlanta,
40:43
Speaker 3: bought back in two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
40:45
Speaker 3: a metal gentleman named James Allen, James Allen Seni and
40:49
Speaker 3: at that time he was on the city's council for
40:53
Speaker 3: Council of Agent and he was a I mean a
40:55
Speaker 3: little small man, but boy he was mighty.
40:59
Speaker 4: He was very very much.
41:00
Speaker 3: And what I didn't know until years later is that
41:04
Speaker 3: mister Allen used to work at Atlanta Housing. He worked
41:07
Speaker 3: at Atlanta Housing and he was the exterminator for Atlanta Housing.
41:12
Speaker 3: So he could tell you stories about, you know, the
41:14
Speaker 3: old public housing projects and the things that he saw,
41:17
Speaker 3: but also what you know, the residents who lived there. Well,
41:21
Speaker 3: you know, fast forward maybe thirty years, Miss Allen became
41:24
Speaker 3: a resident commissioner for the Atlanta Housing Authority and at
41:29
Speaker 3: the time I was still at the City of Atlanta.
41:31
Speaker 3: But what struck me every time I saw mister Allen
41:34
Speaker 3: he would say, who are we going to help today?
41:36
Speaker 3: Who are we going to help today? And what are
41:39
Speaker 3: we going to do different? And then his corn phrase
41:42
Speaker 3: was affordable for who? Because y'all talking all these numbers,
41:45
Speaker 3: all these amis, but who are really really trying to help?
41:48
Speaker 3: And so we had an opportunity. Mister Allen left us.
41:51
Speaker 3: He passed in two thousand and twenty during COVID, and
41:56
Speaker 3: so we were able to rename the development that he
42:00
Speaker 3: lived in to James Allen Place, and we received an award.
42:04
Speaker 3: We received an award Columbia Residential as our developer developer
42:07
Speaker 3: and our owner of that property. But we received an
42:09
Speaker 3: award from the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies
42:14
Speaker 3: just for the superb renovation job that was done on site.
42:18
Speaker 3: That site was renovated. We now have a medical facility
42:22
Speaker 3: on site. We have a movie theater for the residents
42:25
Speaker 3: as well as the library. And I know it would
42:28
Speaker 3: be someplace that mister Allen would say afford you know,
42:32
Speaker 3: affordable for who. But thank you for making this a
42:35
Speaker 3: possibility for so many.
42:37
Speaker 2: I love how a community person, one person can make
42:42
Speaker 2: such an impact and we forget about that, you know,
42:44
Speaker 2: we forget that it doesn't have to take this you know, huge, huge,
42:48
Speaker 2: huge team of five hundred, but the little David and
42:52
Speaker 2: the Goliath, right, I mean, it can be one person
42:55
Speaker 2: that makes a huge difference.
42:57
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a firm believer it only takes one
42:59
Speaker 3: person to believe. And it only takes one person to
43:01
Speaker 3: believe because that because when you believe, it can become
43:04
Speaker 3: so contagious that it just flows through.
43:06
Speaker 4: It just takes one person.
43:08
Speaker 3: And and when we think about that from a leadership perspective,
43:11
Speaker 3: you know, that's that's that's where I'm at. Even last week,
43:14
Speaker 3: you know, we we as many agencies across the country,
43:19
Speaker 3: was was told that there could possibly be a federal
43:23
Speaker 3: freeze on for her, I couldn't get it out.
43:27
Speaker 4: On federal funds.
43:28
Speaker 2: And at the shocking moment here.
43:31
Speaker 3: It was, it was, But it was also a moment
43:33
Speaker 3: where I knew that I had to show leadership and
43:38
Speaker 3: I had to show stability, you know, not just for
43:41
Speaker 3: our residents, right, not just for the development partners, but
43:44
Speaker 3: for the folks who make sure our residents and our
43:46
Speaker 3: development partners are taken care of.
43:47
Speaker 4: Our team. And so we were real, you know, and
43:51
Speaker 4: and and what.
43:52
Speaker 3: I saw is that as I was able to say
43:55
Speaker 3: steady through the grace of God, I saw my leadership
43:58
Speaker 3: team do the same.
43:59
Speaker 4: And so we were able.
44:00
Speaker 3: So it just takes that one person to believe and
44:03
Speaker 3: show that belief, then it will, you know, it would
44:06
Speaker 3: trickle down through. Now, we didn't have all the answers
44:08
Speaker 3: at all, but what we did have was a belief
44:10
Speaker 3: in faith that as Atlanta Housing, we were gonna stand
44:13
Speaker 3: and we were gonna figure it out.
44:16
Speaker 2: And so we've covered a lot of things. Have we
44:19
Speaker 2: missed anything that you want to highlight because you have
44:23
Speaker 2: given us a great vision of what's happening in Atlanta
44:27
Speaker 2: and what's going forward. So but I also want to
44:30
Speaker 2: make sure we didn't skip anything that you really want
44:32
Speaker 2: to bring forward.
44:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I would say stay tuned. You know,
44:35
Speaker 3: Atlanta Housing has a is a wonderful history. And again
44:39
Speaker 3: I stand on the shoulders of so many, but we
44:42
Speaker 3: are we are trailblazing to new heights. And I am
44:46
Speaker 3: grateful in this season to be serving and appointed to
44:49
Speaker 3: serve as the leader of this organization. I'm grateful for
44:52
Speaker 3: the team that I have in the team that we're building.
44:56
Speaker 3: And I will tell you just in December alone, we
44:59
Speaker 3: close Fortrain actions, four transactions and below, one preservation transaction,
45:05
Speaker 3: and then three new development opportunities. I've ride, I ride
45:09
Speaker 3: through the city and I see so many I call them,
45:12
Speaker 3: even though they have the cranes, I call them shovels
45:14
Speaker 3: in the ground because I see the shovels in the ground,
45:17
Speaker 3: and I know, as long as dirt is moving, then
45:19
Speaker 3: we're moving the opportunity forward to help somebody have a
45:21
Speaker 3: stable way of life. So I'm just excited, you know,
45:25
Speaker 3: to be at the organization at this time.
45:27
Speaker 4: I'm excited to.
45:29
Speaker 3: Be in Atlanta in this season, and I just remain
45:32
Speaker 3: grateful for the opportunity to share with you today.
45:35
Speaker 2: You knew you were a real houser when you come
45:37
Speaker 2: into the city and you start counting cranes.
45:39
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt.
45:43
Speaker 2: Well, it is an honor to have you here. You're
45:46
Speaker 2: doing a great job. We support you, and we are
45:49
Speaker 2: thrilled for what you are doing for Atlanta. Again, I've
45:53
Speaker 2: been talking with Terry Lee, the president and CEO of
45:56
Speaker 2: Atlanta Housing. We send you god speed as you knock
46:01
Speaker 2: out twenty twenty five and keep going. Thank you so much,
46:05
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you so much.
46:07
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Change Makers with Katie Gore. To
46:10
Speaker 1: find out more about Katie, go to quadel dot com.
46:14
Speaker 1: That's qu A d e l dot com. This has
46:19
Speaker 1: been a production of Forbes Books Radio