Tenants in 2 AHA buildings get more time

By Eric Stirgus / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution / Published on: 12/12/07

Housing Authority won't tear down Palmer, Roosevelt until 2009 to give residents more time to adapt to change.

Tenants in two Atlanta Housing Authority buildings for the elderly and disabled will have more time before they'll have to move. The authority will push back the demolition dates of the buildings to 2009 "so that we have additional time to help seniors feel more at ease with the transition," AHA president and chief executive officer Renee Glover wrote in a letter Tuesday to Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders.

Housing authority officials announced plans earlier this year to demolish the Palmer House, located near the Georgia Aquarium, by January. They planned to raze Roosevelt House, which stands a couple blocks north of Palmer House, in 2009.

AHA spokesman Rick White said Tuesday the agency will now move up the demolition date of other developments, such as Bowen Homes. AHA officials say there have been five slayings at the northwest Atlanta apartment complex since July. Agency officials say crime is out of control there and want to move residents to safer communities. Bowen Homes is now scheduled to come down in May, White said.

The new schedule still must be approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some tenants and community activists have criticized the authority's plan to demolish 12 older apartment complexes, called the "Quality of Life Initiative." Critics say many tenants will be forced to move to neighborhoods where it is tougher to get to public transportation and health services. AHA officials say most tenants have welcomed the plan and the residents will have the first opportunity to move into whatever is built afterward.
In response to the complaints, councilmen Kwanza Hall and Ivory Lee Young penned legislation urging the AHA to halt the demolition so a task force can study the process and make sure tenants find suitable housing. The council last week postponed a scheduled vote on creating the task force.

Hall said Tuesday he welcomed the revised plan and is working with AHA on other options for tenants in the two developments, which are located in his district. Young said he is still worried about the initiative.

"We've done great things in public housing, but we've left some people out," Young said during a meeting of the council's Community Development/Human Resources committee.

Eight students from South Atlanta High School's law and government program met with Young last week and asked to speak at Tuesday's meeting. They complained that AHA officials don't fully consider the impact demolition has on students who have to move during the school year. Sometimes, said ninth-grader Jermaunte' Lamar, students move with their families to areas where it is more difficult to get to MARTA and they have longer commutes to school.

The students also said some displaced tenants don't get federal vouchers to subsidize rent, called Section 8, and wind up homeless.

Brachell Kemp, 15, talked about the emotional toll. She said some of her relatives were forced to leave Jonesboro South, one of the properties in the Quality of Life Initiative. "Being a student and seeing my family not having anywhere to go was hard on me," the 10th-grader said.