Atlanta's fight against blight on the West Side

Just a short drive from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the bustling city falls silent into empty streets lined with dilapidated houses.

The once bustling West Side neighborhoods, particularly English Avenue and Vince City, were centers of Atlanta's middle-class African American community in the 1950s and 1960s. Prominent figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Maynard Jackson lived there.

In the years since, the population has declined and neighborhoods have fallen into poverty. By 2018, two-thirds of English Avenue had been depopulated. What remained were abandoned, “dilapidated” properties.

Recently, the city identified 3,000 abandoned, overgrown and vacant properties across Atlanta – including 540 on English Avenue and Vine City alone. But a so-called “war on blight” and the development of local nonprofits aim to restore the once-vibrant neighborhoods — while preserving their heritage.

On a Sept. 20 tour, the Blank Family Foundation and Westside Future Fund led a tour of Westside homes that have been rehabilitated in recent years. The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, founded by The Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, has invested $106 million in the West Side since 2007. This is done through grants aimed at providing economic stability and housing for long-term residents of the city's west side.

“As we developed our strategy, we felt it was essential to be able to support nonprofit developers because we know that nonprofit developers don't have access to capital and may not necessarily have the network compared to for-profit developers,” says Westside Youth Development of the Blank Foundation said Managing Director Daniel Shoy.

One of its anchor partners is the Westside Future Fund. The organization focuses its work on four areas: mixed-use housing and income, cradle-to-grave education, safety and health, and community health and well-being. The Blank Foundation recently donated $10 million to the Westside Future Fund to build 1,750 new affordable housing units.

The fund has spent more than $25 million buying up and renovating run-down, abandoned properties in neighborhoods like English Avenue. The fund then either rents the property on affordable terms or sells it to an existing resident. The non-profit organization becomes a renovator, financier and landlord all in one.

“The Westside Future Fund has this development philosophy that really talks about development clusters,” said Rachel Carey, chief real estate officer of the Westside Future Fund.

One cluster is the dilapidated section of James P. Brawley Drive.

“This is the blight that is holding the neighborhood back,” Carey said.

The Westside Future Fund has spent years buying up homes from willing owners. After the purchase, a team assesses what can be saved – although it's often not much since the buildings haven't been maintained for a decade. This is followed by extensive reconstruction and renovation to create a new bungalow where the old one stood.

The fund seeks to retain the “historic feel” of the original design so that the street is a mix of new and old bungalows. The renovated houses are then sold to so-called “legacy residents” at affordable conditions. According to representatives of the organization, it would be cheaper for the fund to demolish and rebuild some buildings, but this does not correspond to their goals.

“It was a big intention for us to keep the building because then it sends a message to people,” Carey said.

In the James P. Brawley Dr. In 395, the future fund took over a complex with 35 two-bedroom, one-bathroom units. According to the fund team, it was a major revamp with some units converted to triples and others to singles to accommodate different family sizes. But instead of replacing the old structure with a shiny, unrecognizable building, the property is intact – just renovated.

“That's the challenge, isn't it?” Carey said. “The challenge of coming here and building and selling houses so someone can live next to properties like this.”

The “Community Attachment Criteria” considers several options: Buyers must be either former or current residents of the neighborhood, employees of the neighborhood, or employees of the nearby historic Black Spelman College and Morehouse College. If necessary, the fund also offers down payment assistance. It also offers an Anti-Displacement Tax Fund program for old homeowners that freezes property tax rates for twenty years.

But the houses are only part of the neighborhood. The now-defunct yellow store stands on dilapidated Brawley Drive. It opened in 1911 and was once home to several local businesses. But as the area depopulated, businesses closed and the area became an epicenter of the plague of violent crime, open-air drug dealing, advertising and drug use.

In 2019, the fund bought the space to curb criminal activity and eventually develop it into a busy shopping center. It is currently in the approval phase. Carey said Councilor Julian Bond, a blight advocate, told them it was “not just about cleanup; It’s about doing it in a way that heals and brings the community back to life.”

To bring the community to life, developers like Jesse Wiles must celebrate its history. He is taking over the renovation of 220 Sunset Ave. next to the house where Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King once lived. It is also the family home of Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson Jr.

The demolition of the three-story apartment building was planned for 2019 for structural reasons. It took community uproar and Wiles negotiating with law enforcement to prevent the building from being demolished and turned into a parking lot for the King home.

“What's really important in transforming a neighborhood like Vine City is the ability to celebrate the history and cultural character, and that's very difficult,” Wiles said.

To preserve the building, Wiles received a statewide historic designation. The designation, however, was not done by Jackson Jr. His mother, Irene Dobbs Jackson, was the first black person in Atlanta to receive a public library card, and her desegregation work changed the landscape of the city's libraries.

Wiles said the renovation will preserve the building's original footprint and some windows, but the three-story home will soon be converted into a five-unit property reserved for Spelman graduate students.

“I think it’s really important to celebrate the history and culture of the people who live in this neighborhood,” Wiles said. “This is a part of neighborhood transformation, just as brick-and-mortar retail is a big part of it.”

However, the Westside Future Fund can only handle part of the redevelopment of the Westside. The model relies on property owners to sell the failing properties – a struggle for the city, which has no rental registry to monitor landlords.

The Atlanta City Council recently declared its “war on blight,” joining the efforts of the city’s nonprofit developers. It allows municipal judges to increase a blighted locality's property taxes by up to 25 times the existing rate.

It is intended to bail out knowingly negligent property owners. On September 3, the council also launched a blight condemnation program, which involves taking control of properties in a “detrimental condition to our communities.”

Ultimately, the goal is to transform neighborhoods like English Avenue and Vine City while retaining their legacy residents. Housing is part of the nonprofit solution. The other part is a regular income.

“How do you do inclusive development?” said John Ahmann, president and CEO of the Westside Future Fund. “We want people to return to this depopulation zone, but how can we really focus on retaining residents?”

The housing construction surge on the west side comes with a focus on workforce development. On September 20, the Arthur M. Blank Foundation announced a $4.5 million gift for workforce training.

Three grant recipients, Atlanta Technical College, Goodwill of North Georgia and the Atlanta Department of Labor, will use the funds to train future employees through local workforce cooperative Westside Works.

The Arthur M. Blank Foundation announced a $4.5 million gift on Sept. 20 focused on workforce development and training. Westside-based recipients include Atlanta Technical College, Goodwill of North Georgia and the Atlanta Department of Labor.

The fellows will work with local labor group Westside Works, which provides training and connects participants with employment opportunities.

“Atlanta, like many other urban centers across the country, is experiencing a process of gentrification,” Shoy said. “I often say that gentrification itself is not a bad thing – it is the displacement that occurs when community change is not inclusive.”

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