AHA Demolitions

BY DENNIS MALCOLM BYRON JR. / ATLANTA VOICE / Managing Editor

The City Hall of Atlanta had over 200 citizens head up its marble steps leading to the second floor main meeting room on Monday, December 3, to take part in a community gathering of great importance. The stage was set for City Council members, led by President Lisa Borders, to vote on passing a resolution to create a Task Force to review the implications of Atlanta Housing Authority demolitions throughout Georgia ’s capital.

The resolution, proposed by Councilmen Kwanza Hall (District 2) and Ivory Lee Young (District 3), would, at the very least, postpone the AHA’s plans to demolish two significant senior citizen residences.

Reportedly, the Palmer House and its 250 units, located on 430 Centennial Olympic Park Drive, is slated to see the wrecking ball in the early part of 2008; the other, the 257 unit-Roosevelt House -- based near Georgia Tech on 582 Techwood Drive -- is planned to be demolished in a little over a year-and-half in April of 2009. Needless to say, both residences are sitting on prime real estate.

The meeting’s attendees included a racially diverse audience who created an aura of concern for their future. They included a group of seniors clad in purple baseball hats and T-shirts with the acronym, P.O.S.S.E. on their backs; residents of Bowen Homes (which is also a candidate for demolition), Palmer House and Roosevelt House; members of the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department to support the appointment of new Chief Kelvin Cochran; and media.

The AHA’s reasoning for demolishing the complexes includes them being in bad condition and dated. Systematically, those housing residents who would be displaced will be granted federal housing subsidized vouchers. These vouchers -- which also brew controversy due to their stipulations – are presented to counterbalance the rent of alternative apartment buildings – both public and private – or homes throughout the city of Atlanta .

With a microphone set up at the front of the general seating, the City Council allowed attendees who signed up before the meeting’s commencement to state their current addresses followed by two minutes to voice their concerns. Called up three at a time, the majority of the speakers expressed resentment for relocation without the resolution’s guidelines.

One Atlanta resident, who did not live in either the Palmer or Roosevelt buildings, still articulated grave concern for what was transpiring throughout the city. She said, “I want to encourage the Council to stand in support of the many of thousands of people in this city who earn [low] wages or fixed income. I want them to support this resolution that investigates how it can be that thousands of units of affordable housing have been torn down over the last decade.” She continued, “What have been put in place are units that are not even affordable to middle-income workers. There are instead million-dollar penthouses that are being built all over town in the places where the working people have raised their families… Take the time to find out how the shift of the housing is going to go to those with millions of dollars, and the people who make this city run – the sanitation workers, the nurses, the waitresses and others -- are being put outside of the perimeter.”

Other comments came from people who were homeless or on the brink of homelessness. Some felt that the relocation would only postpone the inevitable – especially if they violated some of the rules the vouchers stood by in order to be valid. They also stressed how they were content in their current environments, and disrupting this “comfort zone” would create difficulty in finding adequate attention for special needs including, as one speaker said, no longer being in close proximity to a dialysis center.

Conversely, one gentleman in a wheelchair had expressed strong support for the voucher system and AHA’s involvement in relocating citizens. He said, “I have heard the horror stories and some of it I can accept… I want to tell you about the magnificence of the Atlanta Housing Authority relocating my people. I am very satisfied where I am. I am so happy and so proud that I am going through the Atlanta Housing Authority. My rent is now about $12 dollars less. Through the voucher program, I have survived within my needs.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, the resolution was referred back to the community development committee for further discussion. All in all, no concrete actions were taken.

Councilman Young proposed that there should be more time to solidify exactly who would make up the Task Force and what the unit would actually study. The vote on the resolution was postponed until at the earliest, January 7 at 1 p.m.