Atlanta’s ‘rapid rehousing’ plan sparks controversy in Mechanicsville

David Holder believes the city of Atlanta is forcing apartments on unhoused people in Mechanicsville without the neighborhood’s blessing.

“There was no community engagement process,” the president of the Mechanicsville Civic Association said in an interview. “It was just, ‘Get ready.’ It happens.’

The city plans to use two vacant acres at 405 Cooper Street for the next phase of its “rapid rehousing” initiative for unhoused Atlantans, which aims to create 500 permanent supportive housing units across the city by end of 2025.

In late January, Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration opened its shipping container pilot village, The Melody, at 184 Forsyth Street downtown to quickly rehouse 40 previously homeless people.

The city’s work plan is to build the Mechanicsville site just south of Interstate 20 with a mixed-use, mixed-income complex that will include 100 units for people experiencing homelessness, as well as about 250 priced residences from the market and perhaps restaurants and retail.

When the Atlanta City Council approved legislation earlier this month allowing Atlanta Public Schools to swap the Cooper Street site for city-owned land in Old Fourth Ward, concerns from Holder and his neighbors became lively.

“The city decides that when something doesn’t fit in another neighborhood, they throw it into our community,” he said, questioning why city officials chose the low-income, majority-black neighborhood for the project, rather than elsewhere. “We can’t keep doing this.”

The controversy raises questions about what constitutes NIMBYism (a “not in my backyard” urban planning mindset) and what is considered reasonable community refusal.

Holder said he understands Atlanta faces a growing housing affordability crisis, and he believes unhoused and low-income people deserve safe, stable places to live.

But as the city strives to reach 20 percent of its rapid rehousing goal in one fell swoop with the Mechanicsville project, he said, it feels like salt in the wounds of a neighborhood that has long fought against disinvestment, violent crime and others. quality of life issues that have remained largely ignored.

“Help us get to a steady state,” Holder said. “Help us get to a place where we have a place to walk to get groceries, a place to walk to get coffee, go get something to eat.” There are no grocery stores in Mechanicsville – just a few convenience stores that sell soda, beer, chips and candy, but no fresh produce.

“We were promised so many things,” Holder said. He, too, wants to see the Cooper Street property developed, but ideally with mixed-income housing, a grocery store, a hotel and perhaps 10 or 15 permanent supportive housing units for unhoused people — not 100 . “It’s too much,” he said. .

City response

Joshua Humphries, Dickens’ chief housing advisor, said the Mechanicsville rapid rehousing project is still in its infancy – and the city intends to conduct a robust community engagement process before any groundbreaking .

“We are working to address the broader issues facing the neighborhood and to determine what the best version of this property will look like,” he said. Atlanta Civic Circle.

Humphries pointed out that the City Council’s recent legislation only begins the land exchange between the city and the school system; it does not set in motion real development plans. This could take at least months.

But one way or another, the city will move forward with its plan to rapidly rehouse unhoused people at 405 Cooper St., he said. Currently, the property is overgrown and occupied by unhoused people who have set up a small tent city.

“One of our goals is to keep Cooper Street safe,” Humphries said, emphasizing that this is only possible with substantial community input.

Humphries said he has heard the community’s pushback about the rapid rehousing proposal and their concerns that it could materialize the way the Melody did, with cargo containers repurposed into low-income apartments.

The top priority, Humphries stressed, is to create housing for unhoused people as quickly as possible – and what that will look like is still to be determined.

Wanda Sutton, one of The Melody’s first residents, said if people could see how nice and safe her complex is, they wouldn’t be as critical of the shipping container model. “It’s really nice to have a place to rest and I feel like a normal human being,” she said.

“The Melody is an example of what that could look like,” Humphries said. “But it won’t work in every neighborhood.”

For Mechanicsville, he said, that could mean shipping containers or perhaps modular construction — homes that come off assembly lines in pieces and fit together like gingerbread houses.

As for Holder’s complaint that the city intends to cut a fifth of its goal of 500 rapid rehousing units in a neighborhood, Humphries insisted: “We’re spreading that out across the city.” »

“At the end of the day, this is not a situation where we’re trying to put the burden on one neighborhood,” he said. The city is also considering property on Northside Drive, not far from Westside Reservoir Park, for another rapid rehousing project.

It will take months for the city to finalize funding for the Mechanicsville project. In the meantime, Humphries said, city officials will meet every two weeks with community members to hammer out plans on “what’s the sweet spot” for the number of permanent supportive housing units .

Holder, however, said: “We will continue to fight. » He and his neighbors plan to lobby the Atlanta City Council at its June 3 meeting and protest the current plan at upcoming public engagement meetings.