February 18, 2025 • 46 mins
In this episode of Changemakers with Katie Goar, we sit down with Terri Lee, President and CEO of Atlanta Housing, to explore her journey as a leader in housing policy and urban development. Terri shares her experience as Atlanta's first Chief Housing Officer, her transition to leading Atlanta Housing, and the transformative initiatives she has championed to address affordability in one of the country’s fastest-growing cities. From the One Atlanta Housing Affordable Action Plan to Atlanta Housing’s efforts in preserving and creating thousands of units of affordable housing, Terri discusses the challenges and opportunities in combating the housing crisis. She also reflects on the personal experiences that drive her passion, including her childhood in rural Louisiana and the impact of stable housing on family well-being. Tune in to hear about Atlanta’s bold housing strategies, including Choice Neighborhoods revitalization efforts, policy reforms, and community engagement approaches, all aimed at making the city a place where long-time residents and newcomers alike can thrive.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
solutions for the affordable housing community.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This week's change maker is Terry Lee, the President and
CEO of Atlanta Housing, a distinguished leader with over two
decades of experience in housing and public policy across the
Southeastern United States. As one of the nation's most trusted
experts in housing affordability, Terry has spearheaded transformative initiatives, including
(00:36):
the One Atlanta Housing Affordable Action Plan, which aimed to
mobilize one billion dollars for creating and preserving affordable housing
throughout Atlanta. Terry, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thank you so much, Katie. I truly truly appreciate the
opportunity to share with you today.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It is a pleasure and an honor to have you here.
You have such an extensive career in urban planning and housing.
So let's just jump right in, why don't we. Yeah,
absolutely tell me about you being named atlantis first Chief
Housing Officer by the then Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and
(01:18):
now CEO of Atlanta Housing. What is it like to
shape and address Atlanta's housing policy?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
You know, first and foremost, And again, I really really
want to thank you for the opportunity to share with
you today. But it's an absolute blessing. It literally is
a blessing to be able to dedicate my life's work
to lifting up and quite honestly, helping people find stable
shelter in the hopes they could they could then grow
to a different level of economic self sufficiency. You know,
(01:50):
when I was named the first chief Housing Officer, I
will tell you it was not a position that I sought,
and quite honestly, when the city made the kimmuit or
the previous mayor rather I made a commitment that she
would invest a billion dollars towards affordable housing. I remember
sitting in my office as Deputy Commission of City Planning saying,
I don't know who's gonna take that job. Yeah, and
(02:12):
God has a sense of humor. God has a sense
of humor because it was me and he knew. But
it was literally probably one of the most pivotal points
in my trajectory, and it really gave me an opportunity
to understand the importance between authority and influence because in
that role I did not have direct authority because I
(02:34):
reported up to the cheap operating officer, but because of
my career, and because of the relationships I had felt
I had influence, and so we were really able to
use my direct influence to develop not just a plan,
but a strategy to how the city would mobilize differently
and looking not just at the city but all of
his agencies, including Atlanta Housing invest Atlanta Atlanta Beltline, the
(02:58):
Fulton County, City of Atlanta, Lampicuthority, but how these agencies
would take their collective powers and capacity and really do
something different to address affordability in the city. And so,
you know, I'm proud of the work we led. You know,
we invested in that tenure. We invested close to one
point two billion dollars, and that was in public as
(03:19):
well as private funds. We created, created and or preserved
over seven thousand units. Those are units that were either
completed or underdeveloped by the end of my ten years
chief Housing Officer. And we also were able to set
forth policy initiatives that I believe, quite honestly, has helped
on the trajectory that we're on today.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You know, clearly it's not enough.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
We are still as a city, as a country, fighting
a crisis that quite honestly is in front of us.
And running faster than we are. But it definitely was
a huge down payment. And you know, when I think
about the work that I was able to leave as
Chief Housing Officer, really was quite honestly indirec alignment with
me moving over to the House in authority about four
(04:03):
years ago to serve as the Chief Operating Officer. I
remember my predecessor at that time, Jeene Jones, asking me
if I had ever thought about being the Chief Operating
Officer of Atlanta Housing, and I said, well, Gane, quite honestly,
I thought about being the Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta Housing.
And you know, we had a conversation. He asked me,
why didn't I pursue the role prior to him coming
(04:24):
to Atlanta, And we had a very very honest conversation,
and at the end of that conversation, it was clear
to me that my place was at Atlanta Housing then
as a COO, and I was grateful to take the
helm over close to a year ago to be a
year next week as Chief Executive Officer.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Congratulations, it's an amazing journey. You have such a great platform,
You've got the experience, you know, the Atlantic community. It
is definitely a destiny timeline for you.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Isn't it? You know it is.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
It's interesting you say that because I don't take it
for granted, right, I do not take for granted the
opportunity and quite honestly, the privilege that I've been placed
in to serve, serve Atlanta, to serve our residents, and
quite honestly, really make a difference in our community as
(05:15):
a whole.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
And so you know, it's hard.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
It's hard, but as my chairman will often say, chairman
on my board, is hard work. And because it's hard work,
and because I absolutely love it, it is definitely it's
definitely something that I truly enjoy. And I tell you,
I read a book not too long ago, what does
it mean when you give a person a chance? And
(05:38):
literally that that's what I think about when I think
about my career. But I think about the foundation of
my career, which is really me growing up in Grandmy, Louisiana,
understanding what it means when you afford a mother the
opportunity to have stable housing to take care of her kids.
It's really every every day I wake up, I think
about my mom, and I think about the sacrifices that
she made, and I also think about the fact that
(06:00):
she was able to make those sacrifices because she didn't
have to worry about having a roof over her head
or providing for her children.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It is an honor to do what we do, and
it's even more unique when you've got the perspective. Tell
us a little bit more, if you will, about your
mom and the influence, like give us a sneak peeka
to what's driving you and what's sustaining you here.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, So I remember, and I shared this probably about
a year ago, but I remember first time I shared it,
quite honestly, But I remember being around three or four
years old, and I remember being cold. That's like literally
the memory I have in childhood. And that's because we
lived in a mobile home and you know, many many
(06:45):
people know mobile homes can be pretty drafty in the wintertime.
And so I'm the youngest of three and my brother
and my sister and I we will be, you know,
kind of huddled around one of those little gas portable
heaters just to make sure we were not cold. So
I remember having layers and as a blanket on my
bed because it was cold. And when I think about that,
(07:05):
it wasn't because my mom wanted us to be cold.
It was because that was you know, what we had
at the time. And so when I was twelve years old,
my mom received a loan from then it was old
Rule Development. I believe it's fed her home administration now,
but she received a loan to be able to purchase
or to build rather a home that was on the
(07:27):
land where that trailer was. And so to this day,
my mom still has that house on the land where
we were, you know, where we grew up on. But
more importantly, it showed me. It showed me one a
sense of pride, you know, just what the difference between
walking walking up to a home that probably wasn't as
(07:50):
esthetically pleased and quite honestly had so some concerns, some
hashers and concerns, to our house that was stable.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
It also showed me.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The sacrifice my mom made, the sacrifices that she made
for me and my brother and my sister to make
sure that we, you know, had better than what she had.
And when I think about it, Katie, I think about
the fact that I don't have any other choice. I
don't have any other choice but to do the work
that I do and to give back because somebody want
helped my mom, but my mom also sacrifice so much
(08:23):
for us. And you know, I grew up in Grambling
and Grandma Louisianna, and ironically my mother is from Grandlin originally.
And the thing that I love about Grambling is that
despite the economic means or status that my family had,
I never knew, right, I never knew outside of where
we lived. I never really knew because my friends, my teachers,
(08:45):
you know, my church, we were all treated the same.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
So before equity became a.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know, a term, I already knew what it meant
when people had the same access and opportunity. It quite
honestly wasn't until I went to graduate school at Jackson
State University. I needed a way to pay for graduate
school that I realized I couldn't just call home to
get that payment. And so I was fortunate enough to
receive a fellowship to attend graduate school, which really really
(09:11):
kind of spearheaded me into this field of community and
economic development. I wanted to be on to be in
public finance. I love numbers. My team members to tell you, you
can have a number on the board and I can
tell you in the minute if it's right or wrong.
But I had a chance to work with a gentleman,
Harvey Johnson, who ironically was the first African American mayor
(09:34):
of the city of Jackson years later, but he at
that time, he was leading a nonprofit organization, Mississippi Institute
for Small Towns, and they were responsible for administering federally
funded grants all across the state of Mississippi from the
Delta to the coast, helping people, you know, have better housing,
have public facilities. Quite honestly, I'm running plumbing, you know,
(09:54):
sewered things such as that city planning and so you know,
at what age of twenty two, I'm literally, you know,
helping folks in the Delta, Mississippi understand what it means
to make a difference when you actually make an investment
into the community, into the homes that they have, making
sure they have running water and things such as that.
So it it literally has been a ministry. It's been
(10:18):
a calling that one that I ran for, ran from
rather for quite some time, but one that I'm so
happy didn't run for me, and I have the opportunity
to really rest in it and do what I love.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I love that you are leaning more into your story
and you're sharing that. I too have sort of ran
from the story and refuse to talk about my government
cheese days. But where we are and what we're doing,
we do have to come to terms with that, not
just for ourselves, but to sustain us, to keep us
(10:54):
going in for others to hear the impact of housing
and what the lack of stability and the hope of
stability can mean for others. So that leads me now
to Atlanta. I have been to Atlanta so many times.
I love the community, but the Atlanta market.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
There's a lot of other people who.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Are loving Atlanta, and so this market has completely changed.
As to what's happening, which is creating obviously the market
tension for affordability. So why don't you describe just the
state of affordable housing? How would you describe it? What's happening?
Like you mentioned earlier, a lot of factors are contributing
(11:42):
to what's going on. But give us what the needs.
You guys have accomplished a lot, but there's still a
lot to do. So give us kind of in your words,
what the landscape is there?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
No, absolutely, So I've had the privilege of being in
the city for a little over twenty years now, and
quite honestly came to Atlanta, traveled to Atlanta to start
my career with the City of Atlanta as Director of
Housing at that time, and at that time, the office
was responsible for administering the federally funded programs under from
HUD under CDBG, Community Development Block Grant and the Home Program,
(12:17):
And so I've also had an opportunity to be on
the front end of a lot of the housing plans
or implementation strategies that have been developed in the city.
And the one thing that I that I've continued to
see is that the city has continued to grow. The
metropolitan region has grown significantly over the last decade, and
the city has had its fair share of that growth
(12:38):
as well. Our population has grown from a little close
to four hundred to about right around fourhunred thousand to
close to five hundred thousand people, and with that growth
becomes different pressures, right. The second thing I've seen is
the fact that we've had a lot of growth, but
wage growth hasn't kept up with it. You know, we're
in a state where minimum wage is still right around
(12:59):
seven dollars in two five cents an hour. However, you know,
if you want to afford a one bedroom. I believe
the last report I saw from the National Income Housing
Coalition that in order to afford a one bedroom in Atlanta,
you need to work close to eighty hours a week
in order to afford to one for a person at
a certain income level to afford a one bedroom. And
(13:21):
so wage growth is also a problem. The second is
just the market. I mean, the third brother is the
market itself. You know, we we literally came from a
recession to well, Atlanta was on a boom. Atlanta was
at a very very high boom prior to the recession.
And during the recession, what we saw was the you know,
a lot of the market you know, really settled and
(13:45):
stabilized and declined. However, the need didn't because from your
standpoint about a lot of people love in Atlanta. We
saw a lot of investor activity coming in and actually
acquiring available properties, be it rental and or rental developments
and or single family homes. And so that again has
(14:07):
brought a lot of pressure to our market. I think,
you know, the one thing that I look at though,
is that, you know, Atlanta, I kind of chronicle it
to the what Atlanta has afforded and blessed me with
Atlanta is still full of opportunities. And when you think about,
you know, the leadership that we have at the MORA level,
this is the first time that I've seen political will
(14:28):
and political resources collide in such a way that something
is happening at a rapid pace to be able to
address the affordabilities issues here in our city. You know,
our mayor has a goal of twenty thousand yunits through
the course of his term in office, and Atlanta Housing
is contributing to that goal along with our other partners,
(14:49):
be it Invested Atlanta and or the belt Line. We
also are just being smarter, right, you know, how do
you look at zoning policy and you utilize zoning policy
to make sure that it can stimulate the market and
not choke the market. You know, Third, I'll say permitting.
You know, one of the things I tell my team
all the time is that you know, we have to
(15:10):
make quick, knowledgeable decisions. And those quick knowledgeable decisions also
look at what we have to do for a bureaucratic
policy standpoint, and so time kills deals, and so we
have to make sure our permitting process is improved and
moving at such a rate that it's not choking any
development activity, but it's actually lending to those to development activity.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And you have a good dynamic because people want to
move to Atlanta. You have developers who want to be there,
you because have got great market momentum. So, like you said,
if you can solve the permitting and the zoning and
the logistics to get that shovel movie, I've seen a
lot of ribbon cuttings you guys have been doing. So
(15:51):
you're chipping away at that twenty thousand units for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Absolutely, l Katie, let me say this, you have a
lot of people who want to come to Atlanta, but
you also have a lot of great people who are
in Atlanta who deserve the opportunity to grow and prosper
in the neighborhoods that they labored in. And so one
of the things that I'm really proud of is that,
you know, as a city, we're intentional about, you know,
talking about gentrification and displacement and understanding what we need
(16:18):
to do differently to make sure that folks can stay
in the communities that they that they've actually labored in,
because that's so so important as.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
The city developed, you know, the city.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
When I think about Atlanta, I think about when I
first came to the city so many years ago. I remember,
you know, property taxes were not the issue that they
are now, right, you know, you would have you know,
there are some cases now where you may have a
senior citizen that owned that owns their home, but the
property taxes are so astronomical that it literally makes it unaffordable.
(16:51):
And so we have to be intentional about addressing all issues.
So it's not just about preserving or developing new affordable housing.
It's also about making sure that you preserve the opportunity
for the people who have who have dwelled in our
communities to be able to stay in our communities. And
we have to treat it equally. We have to treat
it with just as much as respect, if not more,
as we are people who are looking to come to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Right you you bring up an excellent point about how
communities are accessible and equitable for within the community, for
the existing residents, and what can be done. Like if
you you know, if you are doing a new development
in a neighborhood, you know, how do you approach that
(17:34):
or how do you try to make sure that you
have housing initiatives that are accessible and equitable for all
parts of that community.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Now that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So first off, the first thing you do is you
made sure that you that you remain a part of
the community.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I've seen a lot of development developers go into a
community and create a standalone development, and that's not what
you do. You, you know, be very intentional about making
sure that the new development opportunity is woven into the
fabric of the existing community and that it is an
enhancement and not necessarily a complete takeover. Secondly, from a
(18:12):
policy perspective, you know, back to property taxes, we have
in Atlanta, we have an anti displacement program that really
focuses in on how you cap property taxes that are
certain value, that are a certain amount as development is occurring,
so that as that development occurs and quite honestly becomes
becomes even more prominent homeowners existing homeowners are not forced
(18:35):
out of the community because they're able to afford their
property taxes. And then, you know, we know one of
the things that we see in many of our communities
are the need for unler occupier rehabilitation. A lot of
our seniors as well as some of our meeting income
families are not able to afford just some necessary improvements
(18:56):
to their home. And so making sure that you have
funding available for owner your pri rehabilitation as well to
be able to help help maintain and be able to
keep someone in the house.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
And then just education.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Every day, literally every day, and two or three times
a day, I'm getting phone calls from someone asking me
if I want to sell my home, and every nine decadie,
I just want to have fun with it. I'll tell them, absolutely,
give me a million dollars and I'll sell.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It to me.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And then and the audacity they got me one day
was the gentleman said, well, do you have an appraisal
for that amount?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Oh? Like, are you kidding me? You know, no, No,
I'm not in a million dollar home.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
But the fact that you continue to keep the conversation
going with me lets me know how you're actually becoming
a predator among folks.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Who may not know right.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And so just really making sure that we do a
really good job of community education, make sure people know
what resources are available, if they have questions, who they
should call. Here in the City of Atlanta, we started
the Mayor's office started a Housing Help Center, and that's
where people literally have somewhere to go if they need assistance,
if they need help, and the Housing Health Center serves
(20:02):
as a clearing house to know which calls should come
to Atlanta house and which calls should go directly to
the city from a cold enforcement building permit in are zoning,
a planning perspective, which calls should go to.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Invest Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So it's really, it's really how do you throw a
group and I hate the time to say this, but
because the mayor uses this term a lot, but how
do you take a group project approach to making sure
that you are addressing every aspect that will touch a
person's life and that will enable and that will help
to enable them accomplish the dream of not just having
(20:37):
affordable housing, but having a sustainable environment.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Let's talk about investment. You guys have a HUD choice
neighborhoods grant and for people who may not be familiar,
just tell us how this community right vitalization is such
a huge overall contributor to what you're doing. Tell us,
Tell what's what you're doing, how you've leveraged partnerships, what's
(21:02):
gonna look like, get us a good update on that,
because that is a big win for you guys.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Clue.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
So we have two trust neighborhood implementation grant. So the
first choice neighbor of implementation grant is the former University Homes. Ironically,
it was a co application with the city, with the
City of Atlanta, and I was the lead on the
city side working with the housing authority. But what is
so specially unique about University Homes is that it is
(21:28):
the first public housing site for black people in the
state of Georgia and in the country. And so in
two thousand, I believe twenty fifteen, we were awarded a
thirty million dollar grant from HUD that has been leveraged
against close to four hundred and fifty million dollars, and
that leverage amount has done so much because the beautiful
thing about choice, it's not just about the housing on
(21:50):
the former or the vacant public housing site. It really
takes into consideration the surrounding neighborhood as well as the
residents within the surround the neighborhood and the former residents
of the public housing site. And so today we've developed
right around six hundred units of multi family housing. We're
in our last phase of multi family housing. Now we
(22:12):
should break ground probably early fall on the home ownership component.
We have about forty town homes that we'll be building,
and when we think about the six hundred units, we're
looking at about sixty percent of affordability across that site.
The beautiful thing about university homes as well is now
called Ashley a Scholars Landing. But there was a remaining
(22:34):
community building from the original footprint of the public housing site,
which was called Roosevelt Hall, and so we were able
to renovate Atlanta Housing renovated historic Roosevelt Hall two years
ago and literally that was one of the first projects
I took on when I became chief operating officer. But
we were able to renovate that property utilizing our hud
(22:55):
dollars of funding from the city to a sustainable building.
It actually is a LEAD certified building. And what I
love about it is when we have residents from who
lived at university homes or residents who lived anywhere of
our public house and properties, when they come to that building,
the first scene they remind us is you cared enough
(23:18):
to preserve something that was important to us. And so
that is so critically important to preserve the history of
what we can, but it also speaks to what can happen,
and so, you know, the beautiful thing again about choice
is that it really stimulates the neighborhood itself, and so
you're looking at it from an economic development perspective as
well as retail. Our second choice neighborhood grant is Boeing Homes.
(23:40):
Bowing Homes was demolished in two thousand and nine and
set vacant for about fifteen years until we started the
planning process and was able to receive our second choice
neighborhood immumentation grant.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
The city is also serving as a co lead.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
We're projected to have about two thousand homes on that site.
We're right at about a forty percent affordability. The ten
percent of the units that will be created will be
created for her ownership. But again, the thing that I
love the most is that it will be catalytic for
neighborhood transformation. Alone that corridor, it is probably maybe three
(24:14):
blocks from the largest city owned park. You literally are
in the cradle of the West Side community and it
gives us an opportunity to marry housing, economic empowerment opportunities,
retail and neighborhood civilization efforts.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
All in one.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
We will be breaking ground on the first phase of
Bulling Homes in March. Well, I'm sorry we're doing the
official groundbreaking in March because we already have shovels in
the ground now. I was at the site earlier this
week with one of my colleagues from Boston to share
with them the work that we're doing. And they're literally
a breaking ground on phase one of Bowling Homes, which
would be about one hundred and fifty units of house
(24:54):
of rental housing.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
What an honor to be able to see this. But
I'm shirt it's come with some pains and some lessons
learned here. You know, everybody likes to see the shovel
ready and the ribbon cutting, But what are you learning
on the impact of the community engagement so far? What
are they saying? You know, you mentioned one example. What
(25:19):
else are you hearing from the community?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So Atlanta is very strong on community engagement and community voice.
We have a system called the Neighborhood Planning Unit System,
which I always I used to jokingly refer to as
the fourth or government for the city of Atlanta because
it's a very strong network, but it provides such a
needed and pivotal voice, especially while we're in this moment
(25:44):
moment of time. And so what we're hearing from the community,
not just at going homes, not just a university homes
or any of our other sites. What we're hearing is
we want you to plan with us, not on top
of us. And we want to make sure that we
have a voice in time of developing activity that will
be coming to our community and how our community will
ultimately look.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And we also want to make sure we have a place.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
So you know what the three key things I've taken
away is playing with us, make sure that you know
our voice is heard and not just heard, but actually
acted upon, even if it's not everything. Let us know
that we're doing this in partnership together. And then also
make sure that we have a place that we can
also benefit and be able to participate in the growth
(26:28):
of the communities that we've been in.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Okay, excellent, And I've seen a lot of communities do
it really really well. When they take it in a
step by step process, they you know, have access to
have the voices at the table. It can be collaborative,
it slows it down a little, but you also are
able to approach what everything from what it looks like.
(26:52):
We're sidewalks, you know, can you get an additional transit
stop if there wasn't already one? So you know, it
is a great beneficial process. What about the stadium hotel?
Tell us what's going on with that, because that's been
a fixture of Atlanta Skyline for quite some time. Of
(27:14):
what's happening in that.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Project?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
No, absolutely, So when we adopted our strategic plan and
I led the development of that as chief operating Officer,
we were intentional about saying Atlanta Housing would create and
preserve ten thousand units of affordable housing within a five
year period. And so a part of that was looking
at how do we leverage existing resources. So we had
about three hundred and seventy acres a former public housing
(27:40):
that was just vacant that the units have been demolished
and the land had said vacant for quite some time,
and so we were like, we knew that we had
the opportunity to populate housing from that aspect. We also
knew that we had the opportunity to preserve affordable housing
just from my existing portfolio that was aging. But then
at the same time, we wanted to be strategic about
(28:00):
looking at proactive acquisitions.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
And so the.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Stadium Hotel is in an area of opportunity where we
would deem an area of opportunity, and it really gives
us the ability to provide affordable housing next to quite
honestly a tremendous amount of market rate housing, retail transit.
Georgia State University actually is our neighbor as well. But
(28:26):
it gives us the ability to infuse affordability in a
neighborhood is that is that is actually losing affordability. It
also because of the hotel and the attached garage and
some other land it gives us some ability to think
larger than just the renovation of the existing footprint. But
how can we maximize any type of development opportunity along
(28:46):
that site. We acquired the hotel in August, I believe
of last year, August of last year, and we issued
a request for a proposal for development concepts and ideas
in November, and we will actually have those concepts in
our back in our hands on February seventeenth of this year,
so we can move forward with a development opportunity. What
(29:07):
I really like about the Stadium hotel. Is that it's
an opportunity for us to come in and quite honestly
be very creative and innovative as to what we would
like to see programmed. We were very we were not
as descriptive in the RFP because we want the best
thinking and the best ideas. But we do believe, we
do believe we have the capacity to create at a
(29:29):
minimum two hundred and thirty minits of housing on that site.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Wow, that is going to be just an amazing sort
of like a comprehensive part for that neighborhood, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Absolutely absolutely, And just its location right because it's central
to the downtown area. And also, quite honestly, if you
think about the world that the fact that Atlanta will
be hosting the World Cup, it gives us an opportunity
to activate the site to complement the city and others
efforts as we go through the World Cup.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
So I have a Q.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
What do you think I mean, Georgian's Atlanta the community
on a macro level? What you know, there's growing bipartisan support.
You know it sounds like you guys have a strategic plan,
You've got numbers, You've got the goals, you've got development
like all of the things are aligning. Are there specific
(30:21):
legislative opportunities though or funding? And is that Atlanta Housing
is saying, Hey, this isn't just my Christmas wish list.
You know what do you see on that realm?
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Excellent question?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
So you know you're right. We have a strategic plan.
But anyone who knows me knows I believe in execution
and implementation. And so when you think about our goal
of ten thousand units, we're at sixty six percent of
that goal right now today, but more needs to be done.
So from a legislative and a policy perspective, one of
the things that I would love to see done at
the state level source of income protections. Right now, in
(30:58):
the state of Georgia and the City of Atlanta and
across other cities and municipalities within Georgia, a landlord, a
property owner has the right to deny individual or a
housing trust volutu or access to their property or access
to renting their units. That needs to change, right, That
definitely needs to change. Second thing I would love to
see is more investment from the state level into housing.
(31:22):
When you think about the surplus we have at the state,
if we're able to increase the amount of funding to
the Housing Trust Fund and also supplement that funding with
the Loyalcome Housing tax credit or the taxes ubun program
that the State of maniators, it literally would stretch the
resources and give us the ability to provide more problem
at affordable housing. And then the last thing I'll add,
(31:44):
and please know that there's much more tomorre. We can
probably have a day long conversation about it. But what
we don't talk enough about is how do you really
be become very intentional about making sure someone has a
home today on public subsident system, but then we graduate
them from that so that they can be in a
more economic, self suffice, self sufficient environment. And the way
(32:08):
to do that is to really marry our affordable housing
programs with some level of workforce and or educational attainment
or development opportunity so that we can be more intentional
and creative by increasing people's economic wealth and being to
be able to give them the ability to be self
sustaining on their own without public assistance.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And it's interesting because you know, housing used to be
just like maintain it, build it up, you know, you know,
go through the move in process. But now you guys
are developers. Now you're advocates. Now you're working for legislation
to renovate your I mean like completely redo the tools.
By what you have to do it? How do you
(32:51):
keep your team moving forward with everything that you guys
have to do. You have the need and you have
the drive, but yet you guys are innovators, so you
clearly are a charismatic leader, but like, how do you
translate this now to your team with everything that's on
on the horizon here?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, so you know it's coming into the CEO seed.
Especially after serving as Chief Operating Officer, I knew that
the majority of my team members saw me as somebody
who is, oh my god, she's gonna get it done
and she's gonna make us get it done now.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
And I am.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
But it's clear though that my team needed to hear
my message and they needed to understand who I am
at my core and at my heart. And so on
day two of assuming my role, we had a town hall,
and if a town hall, the leadership team actually was
there to help greet all of our team members and
welcome them in into the venue. But more importantly, when
(33:51):
I was there to give a message, and that message
was Today Tomorrow Together, and it was really giving, you know,
just honor to where we are right now today as
an agency and the contributions that have been made by
so many and quite honestly, the shoulders that I stand on.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
You know what those contributions are. But where do we
want to go tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
What do we want if we want to move from
good to great? What does that mean? What does that
look like? And what will that take? The first thing
it would take is everyone even understanding what our vision
and mission is and understanding what our goals are and
understanding what their part is in it. And then how
do we get to tomorrow? Well, one thing we can't
do is think tomorrow is gonna be be me by myself.
(34:36):
If it's me by myself, then we have a problem.
I can only get to tomorrow if my team is
standing with me and putting forth the energy and the
effort to make sure that we can serve the families
that we need to serve, and quite honestly, we can
serve each other. And so I have really led this
last year and will continue to lead on the message
of Today Tomorrow Together. But more importantly, I will lead,
(35:00):
and they're very transparent since as well as in a
sense of accountability and celebrating the.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Successes we have.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
And so you know, we are really big on making
sure that the team as a whole understands the contributions
they've made. With my leadership team, I'm one hundred percent
empowering my leadership team to help help help support me
to lead this agency. You know, ironically, around Christmas time,
(35:27):
I am I had I had the flu, and so
it took me down really, really bad. And at the
same time, we were planning in our holiday celebration for
the team members. And so the first call I received, well, wa, Tyran,
do you want us to cancel because you can't be here?
I said, absolutely not, absolutely not, because I have pushed
us as an agency so hard this year that we
(35:50):
need to take a moment to celebrate each other. And
so they were nice enough to allow me to have
a video, a video to video message to share with
the staff. And what I shared with the staff is
that I was taking my own advice. If you don't
feel well, stay at home, but please know that I'm
so proud of you and I'm so proud of the
work that we've lifted up together. More important than the work,
(36:13):
I'm probably of the impact of who we're growing to
be and I was I was happy that they streamed
the event lives. I was able to see it and
the joy I saw so many of our team members'
faces just being able to participate on you know, the
awards or who won Employee of the Year. We have
a charitable giving campaign and so we acknowledged the two
(36:35):
individuals who gave the most amount to the charitable giving
campaign when we established the CEO Award. We even had
an ugly sweater contest and they were creative. One of
our team members had her ugly sweater was was pictures
of all the former public housing sites.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
So she we had original pictures.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Bayhead of holes of herdon all on our sweater. And
so I share that with you because you know, we
work hard. We work really, really hard, but we are
going to celebrate each other and we're going to make
sure that we lift the organization up. And I'm also
aware that Atlanta Housing is it for everybody, and I
understand that and I respect that, but for the folks
(37:21):
that it is for, we're going to give our all
to help make sure we lift our residents up and
that we help support each other because again, this is
hard work, but it's also hard work, and so that's
what we lean in on every day.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And that employee engagement matters because they bring that into
the quality of how they have customer service, how they
inspect units, how they answer the phone, I mean everything.
So employee engagement can not be overlooked on any realm
because it's just it's a better program, better compliance when
your employees are engaged. So I'm glad you're I'm glad
(37:57):
that's a the component of your or values. Uh you
mentioned grassroots efforts. I couldn't. I couldn't go on without
talking about Uh, you have several prominent resident association leaders
and community advocates. Uh. Do you want to highlight a
few of those for us? Because every community has them,
(38:20):
but you've got I think you I think you recently
named a development for one of them. Do you want
to share some of that because that's a beautiful story.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Absolutely, we We actually broke ground on this development back
in twenty twenty two, but it was what it was
named to the when it was named for gimme Anita
Gardner Village and Anita Gardner was a member of the
Adamsville community for years. And I remember at the groundbreaking
sharing my sharing words, and what what struck me was
(38:53):
the dash right, so we're you know, she was born
and then she she left us to go to eternity.
But what did she do with that dash? What did
she do with the time in between? And the time
in between she was a school teacher, but the time
in between, she made a footprint and making sure that
her community, in her neighborhood had a voice. She made
(39:14):
a footprint and making sure that she was an advocate
for those who couldn't be an advocate for themselves. And
what was interesting is we didn't you know Atlanta House.
In order did the developer make the decision to rename
the property, we'll need a Gardner. The community came to
us and said, hey, we have to give homage. We
have to give respect to someone who labored so long
(39:36):
and so hard and who fought for developing development opportunities
like these to be in our community. And that's what
it's really all about. So you know, what we were
able to do is we were able to give respect
tim missus Gardner, but also we were able to honor
her legacy. And there are so many legacies like that
in Atlanta. I will tell you so, so many. And
(39:57):
I'm grateful that we're able to do that because it's
really our past. It it forms our present, and the
fact that we're able to honor our pass lets me
know that we'll be able to even do greater things
in our present as well as our future.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
And it's a motivator for the next Oneita, Right, So
you know, you've got this next generation here too that
you know, want to serve, want to be involved, but
maybe they don't know what or how. But when they
can look to a Janita Gardener and see what she's done,
they're like, Okay, you know, I can make my own map.
(40:32):
So I think it's a you're right, legacy building. But
it's also feeding in, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (40:37):
But we have another development, And as you were speaking,
this came to mind. So when I came to Atlanta,
bought back in two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
a metal gentleman named James Allen, James Allen Seni and
at that time he was on the city's council for
Council of Agent and he was a I mean a
little small man, but boy he was mighty.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
He was very very much.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
And what I didn't know until years later is that
mister Allen used to work at Atlanta Housing. He worked
at Atlanta Housing and he was the exterminator for Atlanta Housing.
So he could tell you stories about, you know, the
old public housing projects and the things that he saw,
but also what you know, the residents who lived there. Well,
(41:21):
you know, fast forward maybe thirty years, Miss Allen became
a resident commissioner for the Atlanta Housing Authority and at
the time I was still at the City of Atlanta.
But what struck me every time I saw mister Allen
he would say, who are we going to help today?
Who are we going to help today? And what are
we going to do different? And then his corn phrase
(41:42):
was affordable for who? Because y'all talking all these numbers,
all these amis, but who are really really trying to help?
And so we had an opportunity. Mister Allen left us.
He passed in two thousand and twenty during COVID, and
so we were able to rename the development that he
lived in to James Allen Place, and we received an award.
(42:04):
We received an award Columbia Residential as our developer developer
and our owner of that property. But we received an
award from the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies
just for the superb renovation job that was done on site.
That site was renovated. We now have a medical facility
on site. We have a movie theater for the residents
(42:25):
as well as the library. And I know it would
be someplace that mister Allen would say afford you know,
affordable for who. But thank you for making this a
possibility for so many.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
I love how a community person, one person can make
such an impact and we forget about that, you know,
we forget that it doesn't have to take this you know, huge, huge,
huge team of five hundred, but the little David and
the Goliath, right, I mean, it can be one person
that makes a huge difference.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
You know, I'm a firm believer it only takes one
person to believe. And it only takes one person to
believe because that because when you believe, it can become
so contagious that it just flows through.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
It just takes one person.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
And and when we think about that from a leadership perspective,
you know, that's that's that's where I'm at. Even last week,
you know, we we as many agencies across the country,
was was told that there could possibly be a federal
freeze on for her, I couldn't get it out.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
On federal funds.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
And at the shocking moment here.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
It was, it was, But it was also a moment
where I knew that I had to show leadership and
I had to show stability, you know, not just for
our residents, right, not just for the development partners, but
for the folks who make sure our residents and our
development partners are taken care of.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
Our team. And so we were real, you know, and
and and what.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
I saw is that as I was able to say
steady through the grace of God, I saw my leadership
team do the same.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
And so we were able.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
So it just takes that one person to believe and
show that belief, then it will, you know, it would
trickle down through. Now, we didn't have all the answers
at all, but what we did have was a belief
in faith that as Atlanta Housing, we were gonna stand
and we were gonna figure it out.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
And so we've covered a lot of things. Have we
missed anything that you want to highlight because you have
given us a great vision of what's happening in Atlanta
and what's going forward. So but I also want to
make sure we didn't skip anything that you really want
to bring forward.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, you know, I would say stay tuned. You know,
Atlanta Housing has a is a wonderful history. And again
I stand on the shoulders of so many, but we
are we are trailblazing to new heights. And I am
grateful in this season to be serving and appointed to
serve as the leader of this organization. I'm grateful for
the team that I have in the team that we're building.
(44:56):
And I will tell you just in December alone, we
close Fortrain actions, four transactions and below, one preservation transaction,
and then three new development opportunities. I've ride, I ride
through the city and I see so many I call them,
even though they have the cranes, I call them shovels
in the ground because I see the shovels in the ground,
(45:17):
and I know, as long as dirt is moving, then
we're moving the opportunity forward to help somebody have a
stable way of life. So I'm just excited, you know,
to be at the organization at this time.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I'm excited to.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Be in Atlanta in this season, and I just remain
grateful for the opportunity to share with you today.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
You knew you were a real houser when you come
into the city and you start counting cranes.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Oh yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Well, it is an honor to have you here. You're
doing a great job. We support you, and we are
thrilled for what you are doing for Atlanta. Again, I've
been talking with Terry Lee, the president and CEO of
Atlanta Housing. We send you god speed as you knock
out twenty twenty five and keep going. Thank you so much,
(46:05):
Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Thanks for listening to Change Makers with Katie Gore. To
find out more about Katie, go to quadel dot com.
That's qu A d e l dot com. This has
been a production of Forbes Books Radio
This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
solutions for the affordable housing community.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This week's change maker is Terry Lee, the President and
CEO of Atlanta Housing, a distinguished leader with over two
decades of experience in housing and public policy across the
Southeastern United States. As one of the nation's most trusted
experts in housing affordability, Terry has spearheaded transformative initiatives, including
(00:36):
the One Atlanta Housing Affordable Action Plan, which aimed to
mobilize one billion dollars for creating and preserving affordable housing
throughout Atlanta. Terry, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thank you so much, Katie. I truly truly appreciate the
opportunity to share with you today.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It is a pleasure and an honor to have you here.
You have such an extensive career in urban planning and housing.
So let's just jump right in, why don't we. Yeah,
absolutely tell me about you being named atlantis first Chief
Housing Officer by the then Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and
(01:18):
now CEO of Atlanta Housing. What is it like to
shape and address Atlanta's housing policy?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
You know, first and foremost, And again, I really really
want to thank you for the opportunity to share with
you today. But it's an absolute blessing. It literally is
a blessing to be able to dedicate my life's work
to lifting up and quite honestly, helping people find stable
shelter in the hopes they could they could then grow
to a different level of economic self sufficiency. You know,
(01:50):
when I was named the first chief Housing Officer, I
will tell you it was not a position that I sought,
and quite honestly, when the city made the kimmuit or
the previous mayor rather I made a commitment that she
would invest a billion dollars towards affordable housing. I remember
sitting in my office as Deputy Commission of City Planning saying,
I don't know who's gonna take that job. Yeah, and
(02:12):
God has a sense of humor. God has a sense
of humor because it was me and he knew. But
it was literally probably one of the most pivotal points
in my trajectory, and it really gave me an opportunity
to understand the importance between authority and influence because in
that role I did not have direct authority because I
(02:34):
reported up to the cheap operating officer, but because of
my career, and because of the relationships I had felt
I had influence, and so we were really able to
use my direct influence to develop not just a plan,
but a strategy to how the city would mobilize differently
and looking not just at the city but all of
his agencies, including Atlanta Housing invest Atlanta Atlanta Beltline, the
(02:58):
Fulton County, City of Atlanta, Lampicuthority, but how these agencies
would take their collective powers and capacity and really do
something different to address affordability in the city. And so,
you know, I'm proud of the work we led. You know,
we invested in that tenure. We invested close to one
point two billion dollars, and that was in public as
(03:19):
well as private funds. We created, created and or preserved
over seven thousand units. Those are units that were either
completed or underdeveloped by the end of my ten years
chief Housing Officer. And we also were able to set
forth policy initiatives that I believe, quite honestly, has helped
on the trajectory that we're on today.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
You know, clearly it's not enough.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
We are still as a city, as a country, fighting
a crisis that quite honestly is in front of us.
And running faster than we are. But it definitely was
a huge down payment. And you know, when I think
about the work that I was able to leave as
Chief Housing Officer, really was quite honestly indirec alignment with
me moving over to the House in authority about four
(04:03):
years ago to serve as the Chief Operating Officer. I
remember my predecessor at that time, Jeene Jones, asking me
if I had ever thought about being the Chief Operating
Officer of Atlanta Housing, and I said, well, Gane, quite honestly,
I thought about being the Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta Housing.
And you know, we had a conversation. He asked me,
why didn't I pursue the role prior to him coming
(04:24):
to Atlanta, And we had a very very honest conversation,
and at the end of that conversation, it was clear
to me that my place was at Atlanta Housing then
as a COO, and I was grateful to take the
helm over close to a year ago to be a
year next week as Chief Executive Officer.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Congratulations, it's an amazing journey. You have such a great platform,
You've got the experience, you know, the Atlantic community. It
is definitely a destiny timeline for you.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Isn't it? You know it is.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
It's interesting you say that because I don't take it
for granted, right, I do not take for granted the
opportunity and quite honestly, the privilege that I've been placed
in to serve, serve Atlanta, to serve our residents, and
quite honestly, really make a difference in our community as
(05:15):
a whole.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
And so you know, it's hard.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
It's hard, but as my chairman will often say, chairman
on my board, is hard work. And because it's hard work,
and because I absolutely love it, it is definitely it's
definitely something that I truly enjoy. And I tell you,
I read a book not too long ago, what does
it mean when you give a person a chance? And
(05:38):
literally that that's what I think about when I think
about my career. But I think about the foundation of
my career, which is really me growing up in Grandmy, Louisiana,
understanding what it means when you afford a mother the
opportunity to have stable housing to take care of her kids.
It's really every every day I wake up, I think
about my mom, and I think about the sacrifices that
she made, and I also think about the fact that
(06:00):
she was able to make those sacrifices because she didn't
have to worry about having a roof over her head
or providing for her children.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
It is an honor to do what we do, and
it's even more unique when you've got the perspective. Tell
us a little bit more, if you will, about your
mom and the influence, like give us a sneak peeka
to what's driving you and what's sustaining you here.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, So I remember, and I shared this probably about
a year ago, but I remember first time I shared it,
quite honestly, But I remember being around three or four
years old, and I remember being cold. That's like literally
the memory I have in childhood. And that's because we
lived in a mobile home and you know, many many
(06:45):
people know mobile homes can be pretty drafty in the wintertime.
And so I'm the youngest of three and my brother
and my sister and I we will be, you know,
kind of huddled around one of those little gas portable
heaters just to make sure we were not cold. So
I remember having layers and as a blanket on my
bed because it was cold. And when I think about that,
(07:05):
it wasn't because my mom wanted us to be cold.
It was because that was you know, what we had
at the time. And so when I was twelve years old,
my mom received a loan from then it was old
Rule Development. I believe it's fed her home administration now,
but she received a loan to be able to purchase
or to build rather a home that was on the
(07:27):
land where that trailer was. And so to this day,
my mom still has that house on the land where
we were, you know, where we grew up on. But
more importantly, it showed me. It showed me one a
sense of pride, you know, just what the difference between
walking walking up to a home that probably wasn't as
(07:50):
esthetically pleased and quite honestly had so some concerns, some
hashers and concerns, to our house that was stable.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
It also showed me.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The sacrifice my mom made, the sacrifices that she made
for me and my brother and my sister to make
sure that we, you know, had better than what she had.
And when I think about it, Katie, I think about
the fact that I don't have any other choice. I
don't have any other choice but to do the work
that I do and to give back because somebody want
helped my mom, but my mom also sacrifice so much
(08:23):
for us. And you know, I grew up in Grambling
and Grandma Louisianna, and ironically my mother is from Grandlin originally.
And the thing that I love about Grambling is that
despite the economic means or status that my family had,
I never knew, right, I never knew outside of where
we lived. I never really knew because my friends, my teachers,
(08:45):
you know, my church, we were all treated the same.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
So before equity became a.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know, a term, I already knew what it meant
when people had the same access and opportunity. It quite
honestly wasn't until I went to graduate school at Jackson
State University. I needed a way to pay for graduate
school that I realized I couldn't just call home to
get that payment. And so I was fortunate enough to
receive a fellowship to attend graduate school, which really really
(09:11):
kind of spearheaded me into this field of community and
economic development. I wanted to be on to be in
public finance. I love numbers. My team members to tell you, you
can have a number on the board and I can
tell you in the minute if it's right or wrong.
But I had a chance to work with a gentleman,
Harvey Johnson, who ironically was the first African American mayor
(09:34):
of the city of Jackson years later, but he at
that time, he was leading a nonprofit organization, Mississippi Institute
for Small Towns, and they were responsible for administering federally
funded grants all across the state of Mississippi from the
Delta to the coast, helping people, you know, have better housing,
have public facilities. Quite honestly, I'm running plumbing, you know,
(09:54):
sewered things such as that city planning and so you know,
at what age of twenty two, I'm literally, you know,
helping folks in the Delta, Mississippi understand what it means
to make a difference when you actually make an investment
into the community, into the homes that they have, making
sure they have running water and things such as that.
So it it literally has been a ministry. It's been
(10:18):
a calling that one that I ran for, ran from
rather for quite some time, but one that I'm so
happy didn't run for me, and I have the opportunity
to really rest in it and do what I love.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I love that you are leaning more into your story
and you're sharing that. I too have sort of ran
from the story and refuse to talk about my government
cheese days. But where we are and what we're doing,
we do have to come to terms with that, not
just for ourselves, but to sustain us, to keep us
(10:54):
going in for others to hear the impact of housing
and what the lack of stability and the hope of
stability can mean for others. So that leads me now
to Atlanta. I have been to Atlanta so many times.
I love the community, but the Atlanta market.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
There's a lot of other people who.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Are loving Atlanta, and so this market has completely changed.
As to what's happening, which is creating obviously the market
tension for affordability. So why don't you describe just the
state of affordable housing? How would you describe it? What's happening?
Like you mentioned earlier, a lot of factors are contributing
(11:42):
to what's going on. But give us what the needs.
You guys have accomplished a lot, but there's still a
lot to do. So give us kind of in your words,
what the landscape is there?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
No, absolutely, So I've had the privilege of being in
the city for a little over twenty years now, and
quite honestly came to Atlanta, traveled to Atlanta to start
my career with the City of Atlanta as Director of
Housing at that time, and at that time, the office
was responsible for administering the federally funded programs under from
HUD under CDBG, Community Development Block Grant and the Home Program,
(12:17):
And so I've also had an opportunity to be on
the front end of a lot of the housing plans
or implementation strategies that have been developed in the city.
And the one thing that I that I've continued to
see is that the city has continued to grow. The
metropolitan region has grown significantly over the last decade, and
the city has had its fair share of that growth
(12:38):
as well. Our population has grown from a little close
to four hundred to about right around fourhunred thousand to
close to five hundred thousand people, and with that growth
becomes different pressures, right. The second thing I've seen is
the fact that we've had a lot of growth, but
wage growth hasn't kept up with it. You know, we're
in a state where minimum wage is still right around
(12:59):
seven dollars in two five cents an hour. However, you know,
if you want to afford a one bedroom. I believe
the last report I saw from the National Income Housing
Coalition that in order to afford a one bedroom in Atlanta,
you need to work close to eighty hours a week
in order to afford to one for a person at
a certain income level to afford a one bedroom. And
(13:21):
so wage growth is also a problem. The second is
just the market. I mean, the third brother is the
market itself. You know, we we literally came from a
recession to well, Atlanta was on a boom. Atlanta was
at a very very high boom prior to the recession.
And during the recession, what we saw was the you know,
a lot of the market you know, really settled and
(13:45):
stabilized and declined. However, the need didn't because from your
standpoint about a lot of people love in Atlanta. We
saw a lot of investor activity coming in and actually
acquiring available properties, be it rental and or rental developments
and or single family homes. And so that again has
(14:07):
brought a lot of pressure to our market. I think,
you know, the one thing that I look at though,
is that, you know, Atlanta, I kind of chronicle it
to the what Atlanta has afforded and blessed me with
Atlanta is still full of opportunities. And when you think about,
you know, the leadership that we have at the MORA level,
this is the first time that I've seen political will
(14:28):
and political resources collide in such a way that something
is happening at a rapid pace to be able to
address the affordabilities issues here in our city. You know,
our mayor has a goal of twenty thousand yunits through
the course of his term in office, and Atlanta Housing
is contributing to that goal along with our other partners,
(14:49):
be it Invested Atlanta and or the belt Line. We
also are just being smarter, right, you know, how do
you look at zoning policy and you utilize zoning policy
to make sure that it can stimulate the market and
not choke the market. You know, Third, I'll say permitting.
You know, one of the things I tell my team
all the time is that you know, we have to
(15:10):
make quick, knowledgeable decisions. And those quick knowledgeable decisions also
look at what we have to do for a bureaucratic
policy standpoint, and so time kills deals, and so we
have to make sure our permitting process is improved and
moving at such a rate that it's not choking any
development activity, but it's actually lending to those to development activity.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And you have a good dynamic because people want to
move to Atlanta. You have developers who want to be there,
you because have got great market momentum. So, like you said,
if you can solve the permitting and the zoning and
the logistics to get that shovel movie, I've seen a
lot of ribbon cuttings you guys have been doing. So
(15:51):
you're chipping away at that twenty thousand units for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Absolutely, l Katie, let me say this, you have a
lot of people who want to come to Atlanta, but
you also have a lot of great people who are
in Atlanta who deserve the opportunity to grow and prosper
in the neighborhoods that they labored in. And so one
of the things that I'm really proud of is that,
you know, as a city, we're intentional about, you know,
talking about gentrification and displacement and understanding what we need
(16:18):
to do differently to make sure that folks can stay
in the communities that they that they've actually labored in,
because that's so so important as.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
The city developed, you know, the city.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
When I think about Atlanta, I think about when I
first came to the city so many years ago. I remember,
you know, property taxes were not the issue that they
are now, right, you know, you would have you know,
there are some cases now where you may have a
senior citizen that owned that owns their home, but the
property taxes are so astronomical that it literally makes it unaffordable.
(16:51):
And so we have to be intentional about addressing all issues.
So it's not just about preserving or developing new affordable housing.
It's also about making sure that you preserve the opportunity
for the people who have who have dwelled in our
communities to be able to stay in our communities. And
we have to treat it equally. We have to treat
it with just as much as respect, if not more,
as we are people who are looking to come to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Right you you bring up an excellent point about how
communities are accessible and equitable for within the community, for
the existing residents, and what can be done. Like if
you you know, if you are doing a new development
in a neighborhood, you know, how do you approach that
(17:34):
or how do you try to make sure that you
have housing initiatives that are accessible and equitable for all
parts of that community.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Now that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So first off, the first thing you do is you
made sure that you that you remain a part of
the community.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
I've seen a lot of development developers go into a
community and create a standalone development, and that's not what
you do. You, you know, be very intentional about making
sure that the new development opportunity is woven into the
fabric of the existing community and that it is an
enhancement and not necessarily a complete takeover. Secondly, from a
(18:12):
policy perspective, you know, back to property taxes, we have
in Atlanta, we have an anti displacement program that really
focuses in on how you cap property taxes that are
certain value, that are a certain amount as development is occurring,
so that as that development occurs and quite honestly becomes
becomes even more prominent homeowners existing homeowners are not forced
(18:35):
out of the community because they're able to afford their
property taxes. And then, you know, we know one of
the things that we see in many of our communities
are the need for unler occupier rehabilitation. A lot of
our seniors as well as some of our meeting income
families are not able to afford just some necessary improvements
(18:56):
to their home. And so making sure that you have
funding available for owner your pri rehabilitation as well to
be able to help help maintain and be able to
keep someone in the house.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
And then just education.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Every day, literally every day, and two or three times
a day, I'm getting phone calls from someone asking me
if I want to sell my home, and every nine decadie,
I just want to have fun with it. I'll tell them, absolutely,
give me a million dollars and I'll sell.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
It to me.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And then and the audacity they got me one day
was the gentleman said, well, do you have an appraisal
for that amount?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Oh? Like, are you kidding me? You know, no, No,
I'm not in a million dollar home.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
But the fact that you continue to keep the conversation
going with me lets me know how you're actually becoming
a predator among folks.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Who may not know right.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And so just really making sure that we do a
really good job of community education, make sure people know
what resources are available, if they have questions, who they
should call. Here in the City of Atlanta, we started
the Mayor's office started a Housing Help Center, and that's
where people literally have somewhere to go if they need assistance,
if they need help, and the Housing Health Center serves
(20:02):
as a clearing house to know which calls should come
to Atlanta house and which calls should go directly to
the city from a cold enforcement building permit in are zoning,
a planning perspective, which calls should go to.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Invest Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So it's really, it's really how do you throw a
group and I hate the time to say this, but
because the mayor uses this term a lot, but how
do you take a group project approach to making sure
that you are addressing every aspect that will touch a
person's life and that will enable and that will help
to enable them accomplish the dream of not just having
(20:37):
affordable housing, but having a sustainable environment.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Let's talk about investment. You guys have a HUD choice
neighborhoods grant and for people who may not be familiar,
just tell us how this community right vitalization is such
a huge overall contributor to what you're doing. Tell us,
Tell what's what you're doing, how you've leveraged partnerships, what's
(21:02):
gonna look like, get us a good update on that,
because that is a big win for you guys.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Clue.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
So we have two trust neighborhood implementation grant. So the
first choice neighbor of implementation grant is the former University Homes. Ironically,
it was a co application with the city, with the
City of Atlanta, and I was the lead on the
city side working with the housing authority. But what is
so specially unique about University Homes is that it is
(21:28):
the first public housing site for black people in the
state of Georgia and in the country. And so in
two thousand, I believe twenty fifteen, we were awarded a
thirty million dollar grant from HUD that has been leveraged
against close to four hundred and fifty million dollars, and
that leverage amount has done so much because the beautiful
thing about choice, it's not just about the housing on
(21:50):
the former or the vacant public housing site. It really
takes into consideration the surrounding neighborhood as well as the
residents within the surround the neighborhood and the former residents
of the public housing site. And so today we've developed
right around six hundred units of multi family housing. We're
in our last phase of multi family housing. Now we
(22:12):
should break ground probably early fall on the home ownership component.
We have about forty town homes that we'll be building,
and when we think about the six hundred units, we're
looking at about sixty percent of affordability across that site.
The beautiful thing about university homes as well is now
called Ashley a Scholars Landing. But there was a remaining
(22:34):
community building from the original footprint of the public housing site,
which was called Roosevelt Hall, and so we were able
to renovate Atlanta Housing renovated historic Roosevelt Hall two years
ago and literally that was one of the first projects
I took on when I became chief operating officer. But
we were able to renovate that property utilizing our hud
(22:55):
dollars of funding from the city to a sustainable building.
It actually is a LEAD certified building. And what I
love about it is when we have residents from who
lived at university homes or residents who lived anywhere of
our public house and properties, when they come to that building,
the first scene they remind us is you cared enough
(23:18):
to preserve something that was important to us. And so
that is so critically important to preserve the history of
what we can, but it also speaks to what can happen,
and so, you know, the beautiful thing again about choice
is that it really stimulates the neighborhood itself, and so
you're looking at it from an economic development perspective as
well as retail. Our second choice neighborhood grant is Boeing Homes.
(23:40):
Bowing Homes was demolished in two thousand and nine and
set vacant for about fifteen years until we started the
planning process and was able to receive our second choice
neighborhood immumentation grant.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
The city is also serving as a co lead.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
We're projected to have about two thousand homes on that site.
We're right at about a forty percent affordability. The ten
percent of the units that will be created will be
created for her ownership. But again, the thing that I
love the most is that it will be catalytic for
neighborhood transformation. Alone that corridor, it is probably maybe three
(24:14):
blocks from the largest city owned park. You literally are
in the cradle of the West Side community and it
gives us an opportunity to marry housing, economic empowerment opportunities,
retail and neighborhood civilization efforts.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
All in one.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
We will be breaking ground on the first phase of
Bulling Homes in March. Well, I'm sorry we're doing the
official groundbreaking in March because we already have shovels in
the ground now. I was at the site earlier this
week with one of my colleagues from Boston to share
with them the work that we're doing. And they're literally
a breaking ground on phase one of Bowling Homes, which
would be about one hundred and fifty units of house
(24:54):
of rental housing.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
What an honor to be able to see this. But
I'm shirt it's come with some pains and some lessons
learned here. You know, everybody likes to see the shovel
ready and the ribbon cutting, But what are you learning
on the impact of the community engagement so far? What
are they saying? You know, you mentioned one example. What
(25:19):
else are you hearing from the community?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So Atlanta is very strong on community engagement and community voice.
We have a system called the Neighborhood Planning Unit System,
which I always I used to jokingly refer to as
the fourth or government for the city of Atlanta because
it's a very strong network, but it provides such a
needed and pivotal voice, especially while we're in this moment
(25:44):
moment of time. And so what we're hearing from the community,
not just at going homes, not just a university homes
or any of our other sites. What we're hearing is
we want you to plan with us, not on top
of us. And we want to make sure that we
have a voice in time of developing activity that will
be coming to our community and how our community will
ultimately look.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
And we also want to make sure we have a place.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
So you know what the three key things I've taken
away is playing with us, make sure that you know
our voice is heard and not just heard, but actually
acted upon, even if it's not everything. Let us know
that we're doing this in partnership together. And then also
make sure that we have a place that we can
also benefit and be able to participate in the growth
(26:28):
of the communities that we've been in.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Okay, excellent, And I've seen a lot of communities do
it really really well. When they take it in a
step by step process, they you know, have access to
have the voices at the table. It can be collaborative,
it slows it down a little, but you also are
able to approach what everything from what it looks like.
(26:52):
We're sidewalks, you know, can you get an additional transit
stop if there wasn't already one? So you know, it
is a great beneficial process. What about the stadium hotel?
Tell us what's going on with that, because that's been
a fixture of Atlanta Skyline for quite some time. Of
(27:14):
what's happening in that.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Project?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
No, absolutely, So when we adopted our strategic plan and
I led the development of that as chief operating Officer,
we were intentional about saying Atlanta Housing would create and
preserve ten thousand units of affordable housing within a five
year period. And so a part of that was looking
at how do we leverage existing resources. So we had
about three hundred and seventy acres a former public housing
(27:40):
that was just vacant that the units have been demolished
and the land had said vacant for quite some time,
and so we were like, we knew that we had
the opportunity to populate housing from that aspect. We also
knew that we had the opportunity to preserve affordable housing
just from my existing portfolio that was aging. But then
at the same time, we wanted to be strategic about
(28:00):
looking at proactive acquisitions.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
And so the.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Stadium Hotel is in an area of opportunity where we
would deem an area of opportunity, and it really gives
us the ability to provide affordable housing next to quite
honestly a tremendous amount of market rate housing, retail transit.
Georgia State University actually is our neighbor as well. But
(28:26):
it gives us the ability to infuse affordability in a
neighborhood is that is that is actually losing affordability. It
also because of the hotel and the attached garage and
some other land it gives us some ability to think
larger than just the renovation of the existing footprint. But
how can we maximize any type of development opportunity along
(28:46):
that site. We acquired the hotel in August, I believe
of last year, August of last year, and we issued
a request for a proposal for development concepts and ideas
in November, and we will actually have those concepts in
our back in our hands on February seventeenth of this year,
so we can move forward with a development opportunity. What
(29:07):
I really like about the Stadium hotel. Is that it's
an opportunity for us to come in and quite honestly
be very creative and innovative as to what we would
like to see programmed. We were very we were not
as descriptive in the RFP because we want the best
thinking and the best ideas. But we do believe, we
do believe we have the capacity to create at a
(29:29):
minimum two hundred and thirty minits of housing on that site.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Wow, that is going to be just an amazing sort
of like a comprehensive part for that neighborhood, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Absolutely absolutely, And just its location right because it's central
to the downtown area. And also, quite honestly, if you
think about the world that the fact that Atlanta will
be hosting the World Cup, it gives us an opportunity
to activate the site to complement the city and others
efforts as we go through the World Cup.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
So I have a Q.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
What do you think I mean, Georgian's Atlanta the community
on a macro level? What you know, there's growing bipartisan support.
You know it sounds like you guys have a strategic plan,
You've got numbers, You've got the goals, you've got development
like all of the things are aligning. Are there specific
(30:21):
legislative opportunities though or funding? And is that Atlanta Housing
is saying, Hey, this isn't just my Christmas wish list.
You know what do you see on that realm?
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Excellent question?
Speaker 3 (30:36):
So you know you're right. We have a strategic plan.
But anyone who knows me knows I believe in execution
and implementation. And so when you think about our goal
of ten thousand units, we're at sixty six percent of
that goal right now today, but more needs to be done.
So from a legislative and a policy perspective, one of
the things that I would love to see done at
the state level source of income protections. Right now, in
(30:58):
the state of Georgia and the City of Atlanta and
across other cities and municipalities within Georgia, a landlord, a
property owner has the right to deny individual or a
housing trust volutu or access to their property or access
to renting their units. That needs to change, right, That
definitely needs to change. Second thing I would love to
see is more investment from the state level into housing.
(31:22):
When you think about the surplus we have at the state,
if we're able to increase the amount of funding to
the Housing Trust Fund and also supplement that funding with
the Loyalcome Housing tax credit or the taxes ubun program
that the State of maniators, it literally would stretch the
resources and give us the ability to provide more problem
at affordable housing. And then the last thing I'll add,
(31:44):
and please know that there's much more tomorre. We can
probably have a day long conversation about it. But what
we don't talk enough about is how do you really
be become very intentional about making sure someone has a
home today on public subsident system, but then we graduate
them from that so that they can be in a
more economic, self suffice, self sufficient environment. And the way
(32:08):
to do that is to really marry our affordable housing
programs with some level of workforce and or educational attainment
or development opportunity so that we can be more intentional
and creative by increasing people's economic wealth and being to
be able to give them the ability to be self
sustaining on their own without public assistance.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And it's interesting because you know, housing used to be
just like maintain it, build it up, you know, you know,
go through the move in process. But now you guys
are developers. Now you're advocates. Now you're working for legislation
to renovate your I mean like completely redo the tools.
By what you have to do it? How do you
(32:51):
keep your team moving forward with everything that you guys
have to do. You have the need and you have
the drive, but yet you guys are innovators, so you
clearly are a charismatic leader, but like, how do you
translate this now to your team with everything that's on
on the horizon here?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, so you know it's coming into the CEO seed.
Especially after serving as Chief Operating Officer, I knew that
the majority of my team members saw me as somebody
who is, oh my god, she's gonna get it done
and she's gonna make us get it done now.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
And I am.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
But it's clear though that my team needed to hear
my message and they needed to understand who I am
at my core and at my heart. And so on
day two of assuming my role, we had a town hall,
and if a town hall, the leadership team actually was
there to help greet all of our team members and
welcome them in into the venue. But more importantly, when
(33:51):
I was there to give a message, and that message
was Today Tomorrow Together, and it was really giving, you know,
just honor to where we are right now today as
an agency and the contributions that have been made by
so many and quite honestly, the shoulders that I stand on.
Speaker 4 (34:09):
You know what those contributions are. But where do we
want to go tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
What do we want if we want to move from
good to great? What does that mean? What does that
look like? And what will that take? The first thing
it would take is everyone even understanding what our vision
and mission is and understanding what our goals are and
understanding what their part is in it. And then how
do we get to tomorrow? Well, one thing we can't
do is think tomorrow is gonna be be me by myself.
(34:36):
If it's me by myself, then we have a problem.
I can only get to tomorrow if my team is
standing with me and putting forth the energy and the
effort to make sure that we can serve the families
that we need to serve, and quite honestly, we can
serve each other. And so I have really led this
last year and will continue to lead on the message
of Today Tomorrow Together. But more importantly, I will lead,
(35:00):
and they're very transparent since as well as in a
sense of accountability and celebrating the.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Successes we have.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
And so you know, we are really big on making
sure that the team as a whole understands the contributions
they've made. With my leadership team, I'm one hundred percent
empowering my leadership team to help help help support me
to lead this agency. You know, ironically, around Christmas time,
(35:27):
I am I had I had the flu, and so
it took me down really, really bad. And at the
same time, we were planning in our holiday celebration for
the team members. And so the first call I received, well, wa, Tyran,
do you want us to cancel because you can't be here?
I said, absolutely not, absolutely not, because I have pushed
us as an agency so hard this year that we
(35:50):
need to take a moment to celebrate each other. And
so they were nice enough to allow me to have
a video, a video to video message to share with
the staff. And what I shared with the staff is
that I was taking my own advice. If you don't
feel well, stay at home, but please know that I'm
so proud of you and I'm so proud of the
work that we've lifted up together. More important than the work,
(36:13):
I'm probably of the impact of who we're growing to
be and I was I was happy that they streamed
the event lives. I was able to see it and
the joy I saw so many of our team members'
faces just being able to participate on you know, the
awards or who won Employee of the Year. We have
a charitable giving campaign and so we acknowledged the two
(36:35):
individuals who gave the most amount to the charitable giving
campaign when we established the CEO Award. We even had
an ugly sweater contest and they were creative. One of
our team members had her ugly sweater was was pictures
of all the former public housing sites.
Speaker 4 (36:55):
So she we had original pictures.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Bayhead of holes of herdon all on our sweater. And
so I share that with you because you know, we
work hard. We work really, really hard, but we are
going to celebrate each other and we're going to make
sure that we lift the organization up. And I'm also
aware that Atlanta Housing is it for everybody, and I
understand that and I respect that, but for the folks
(37:21):
that it is for, we're going to give our all
to help make sure we lift our residents up and
that we help support each other because again, this is
hard work, but it's also hard work, and so that's
what we lean in on every day.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And that employee engagement matters because they bring that into
the quality of how they have customer service, how they
inspect units, how they answer the phone, I mean everything.
So employee engagement can not be overlooked on any realm
because it's just it's a better program, better compliance when
your employees are engaged. So I'm glad you're I'm glad
(37:57):
that's a the component of your or values. Uh you
mentioned grassroots efforts. I couldn't. I couldn't go on without
talking about Uh, you have several prominent resident association leaders
and community advocates. Uh. Do you want to highlight a
few of those for us? Because every community has them,
(38:20):
but you've got I think you I think you recently
named a development for one of them. Do you want
to share some of that because that's a beautiful story.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:31):
Absolutely, we We actually broke ground on this development back
in twenty twenty two, but it was what it was
named to the when it was named for gimme Anita
Gardner Village and Anita Gardner was a member of the
Adamsville community for years. And I remember at the groundbreaking
sharing my sharing words, and what what struck me was
(38:53):
the dash right, so we're you know, she was born
and then she she left us to go to eternity.
But what did she do with that dash? What did
she do with the time in between? And the time
in between she was a school teacher, but the time
in between, she made a footprint and making sure that
her community, in her neighborhood had a voice. She made
(39:14):
a footprint and making sure that she was an advocate
for those who couldn't be an advocate for themselves. And
what was interesting is we didn't you know Atlanta House.
In order did the developer make the decision to rename
the property, we'll need a Gardner. The community came to
us and said, hey, we have to give homage. We
have to give respect to someone who labored so long
(39:36):
and so hard and who fought for developing development opportunities
like these to be in our community. And that's what
it's really all about. So you know, what we were
able to do is we were able to give respect
tim missus Gardner, but also we were able to honor
her legacy. And there are so many legacies like that
in Atlanta. I will tell you so, so many. And
(39:57):
I'm grateful that we're able to do that because it's
really our past. It it forms our present, and the
fact that we're able to honor our pass lets me
know that we'll be able to even do greater things
in our present as well as our future.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
And it's a motivator for the next Oneita, Right, So
you know, you've got this next generation here too that
you know, want to serve, want to be involved, but
maybe they don't know what or how. But when they
can look to a Janita Gardener and see what she's done,
they're like, Okay, you know, I can make my own map.
(40:32):
So I think it's a you're right, legacy building. But
it's also feeding in, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (40:37):
But we have another development, And as you were speaking,
this came to mind. So when I came to Atlanta,
bought back in two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
a metal gentleman named James Allen, James Allen Seni and
at that time he was on the city's council for
Council of Agent and he was a I mean a
little small man, but boy he was mighty.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
He was very very much.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
And what I didn't know until years later is that
mister Allen used to work at Atlanta Housing. He worked
at Atlanta Housing and he was the exterminator for Atlanta Housing.
So he could tell you stories about, you know, the
old public housing projects and the things that he saw,
but also what you know, the residents who lived there. Well,
(41:21):
you know, fast forward maybe thirty years, Miss Allen became
a resident commissioner for the Atlanta Housing Authority and at
the time I was still at the City of Atlanta.
But what struck me every time I saw mister Allen
he would say, who are we going to help today?
Who are we going to help today? And what are
we going to do different? And then his corn phrase
(41:42):
was affordable for who? Because y'all talking all these numbers,
all these amis, but who are really really trying to help?
And so we had an opportunity. Mister Allen left us.
He passed in two thousand and twenty during COVID, and
so we were able to rename the development that he
lived in to James Allen Place, and we received an award.
(42:04):
We received an award Columbia Residential as our developer developer
and our owner of that property. But we received an
award from the National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies
just for the superb renovation job that was done on site.
That site was renovated. We now have a medical facility
on site. We have a movie theater for the residents
(42:25):
as well as the library. And I know it would
be someplace that mister Allen would say afford you know,
affordable for who. But thank you for making this a
possibility for so many.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
I love how a community person, one person can make
such an impact and we forget about that, you know,
we forget that it doesn't have to take this you know, huge, huge,
huge team of five hundred, but the little David and
the Goliath, right, I mean, it can be one person
that makes a huge difference.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
You know, I'm a firm believer it only takes one
person to believe. And it only takes one person to
believe because that because when you believe, it can become
so contagious that it just flows through.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
It just takes one person.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
And and when we think about that from a leadership perspective,
you know, that's that's that's where I'm at. Even last week,
you know, we we as many agencies across the country,
was was told that there could possibly be a federal
freeze on for her, I couldn't get it out.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
On federal funds.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
And at the shocking moment here.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
It was, it was, But it was also a moment
where I knew that I had to show leadership and
I had to show stability, you know, not just for
our residents, right, not just for the development partners, but
for the folks who make sure our residents and our
development partners are taken care of.
Speaker 4 (43:47):
Our team. And so we were real, you know, and
and and what.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
I saw is that as I was able to say
steady through the grace of God, I saw my leadership
team do the same.
Speaker 4 (43:59):
And so we were able.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
So it just takes that one person to believe and
show that belief, then it will, you know, it would
trickle down through. Now, we didn't have all the answers
at all, but what we did have was a belief
in faith that as Atlanta Housing, we were gonna stand
and we were gonna figure it out.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
And so we've covered a lot of things. Have we
missed anything that you want to highlight because you have
given us a great vision of what's happening in Atlanta
and what's going forward. So but I also want to
make sure we didn't skip anything that you really want
to bring forward.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
Yeah, you know, I would say stay tuned. You know,
Atlanta Housing has a is a wonderful history. And again
I stand on the shoulders of so many, but we
are we are trailblazing to new heights. And I am
grateful in this season to be serving and appointed to
serve as the leader of this organization. I'm grateful for
the team that I have in the team that we're building.
(44:56):
And I will tell you just in December alone, we
close Fortrain actions, four transactions and below, one preservation transaction,
and then three new development opportunities. I've ride, I ride
through the city and I see so many I call them,
even though they have the cranes, I call them shovels
in the ground because I see the shovels in the ground,
(45:17):
and I know, as long as dirt is moving, then
we're moving the opportunity forward to help somebody have a
stable way of life. So I'm just excited, you know,
to be at the organization at this time.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I'm excited to.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Be in Atlanta in this season, and I just remain
grateful for the opportunity to share with you today.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
You knew you were a real houser when you come
into the city and you start counting cranes.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Oh yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Well, it is an honor to have you here. You're
doing a great job. We support you, and we are
thrilled for what you are doing for Atlanta. Again, I've
been talking with Terry Lee, the president and CEO of
Atlanta Housing. We send you god speed as you knock
out twenty twenty five and keep going. Thank you so much,
(46:05):
Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Thanks for listening to Change Makers with Katie Gore. To
find out more about Katie, go to quadel dot com.
That's qu A d e l dot com. This has
been a production of Forbes Books Radio
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