ATLANTA – Atlanta Housing (AH) President and CEO Terri M. Lee today announced the agency’s ambitious plans to help more residents reach self-sufficiency, increase AH’s role in finding a solution to homelessness, and efforts to urgently expand affordable housing options across the city.
While delivering the inaugural State of Atlanta Housing address, Lee said AH remains focused on bricks-and-mortar but added human potential will also be front and center in its upcoming fiscal year – declaring a “Resident Renaissance.”
To better serve residents, Lee said the in the 2026 fiscal year the Atlanta Housing will place an emphasis on expanding resident services. Some of the services include:
- Further developing homeownership opportunities through financial education and coaching, and down payment support.
- Providing aging-in-place services for seniors to enhance their quality of life and give them dignity and security.
- Expanding youth programs with educational institutions, after-school programs, and community organizations for the 17,000-plus kids in AH communities to ensure our children aren’t only housed but supported, guided, and empowered to reach their full potential.
Lee is now asking civic leaders, educators, businesses and community members to support the Resident Renaissance, by considering this question, “how can you partner with us to fully embrace the incredible potential of Atlanta Housing families?”
For individuals and families experiencing homelessness, Lee said AH is pledging additional support to fund permanent supportive housing and provide Housing Choice Vouchers.
Pending approval from Atlanta Housing’s Board of Commissioners, AH is preparing to support the City of Atlanta’s new initiative to create 500 units of housing for the unhoused population by the end of 2025.
Working alongside the city, Partners for HOME, and other organizations, AH will also provide 500 additional Housing Choice Vouchers.
Currently, Atlanta Housing supports several long-term housing developments for individuals or families experiencing homelessness and provides hundreds of Housing Choice Vouchers.
February marked one year since Lee stepped into the role of President and CEO of Atlanta Housing. On Tuesday she recapped the agency’s record-breaking year in 2024 before previewing the future.
“In 2024 alone, we closed 12 real estate developments — more than the past three years combined,” Lee said. “Our investments supported the delivery of more than 3,200 affordable housing units in 2024 alone — with 1,794 new affordable units created while preserving 1,406 units.”
As part of a strategic plan created in 2022, Atlanta Housing is aiming to create or preserve 10,000 affordable units by 2027. As of this month the authority has reached 67 percent of its commitment.
To place even more residents in housing, AH will build or preserve thousands of additional affordable housing units across Atlanta through commitments made this year.
“By the end of 2025, Atlanta Housing will have committed $272 million from our federal resources toward transformative community projects across Atlanta,” Lee said. “And our economic impact reaches even further. Every dollar Atlanta Housing invests leverages $12 from other public and private sources, stretching taxpayer dollars further and smarter. Our projects are supporting local contractors, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and skilled tradespeople. In short, Atlanta Housing is helping to create an economic ecosystem that benefits all Atlantans—strengthening the city’s competitiveness, workforce stability, and regional economic resilience.”
Currently Atlanta Housing is moving forward with urgency by having 21 projects either in the construction or lease-up phases, representing one of the most ambitious affordable housing pipelines in the country.
In the next quarter AH expects to close financing for a total of six more transformative projects, Lee announced Tuesday. Those closing will lead to more than 600 units of affordable housing with a total Atlanta Housing investment of $180 million.
The projects slated for closings include the reimagining of the Atlanta Civic Center property into a mix-use neighborhood with rental housing, senior housing, alongside hotel, office, retail and open space that will bring new life to Downtown, Midtown, and Old Fourth Ward. There will also be new development to answer the need for affordable homeownership options with for-sale homes in Mechanicsville, Vine City and in the city’s Westside.
Much of the AH’s current and future construction is happening on land that for years sat in the agency’s portfolio but remained vacant.
As of Tuesday, AH has recently begun activating more than 248 acres of formerly vacant public housing sites. Now the land will once again provide homes to the people of Atlanta.
Earlier this year a groundbreaking ceremony was held for Phase I of a full-scale redevelopment of Bowen Homes in the Carey Park neighborhood. While the first phase will deliver 151 new units, including 97 homes dedicated to deeply affordable housing, the entire redevelopment will bring 2,000 homes across a mixed-income, mixed-use community. Bowen Homes is one of the most significant community transformation efforts underway anywhere in the country.
Later this year a similar groundbreaking will take place in the Chosewood Park neighborhood for the second phase of Englewood South, another of Atlanta Housing’s most ambitious developments. The groundbreaking on vacant land will lead to 200 units in a multifamily development, including 100 AH-assisted units, along with nearly 22,000 square feet of retail space.
Before Lee delivered her State of Atlanta Housing address, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens offered his dream for Atlanta Housing residents.
“My hope is that for many of you, your stay in Atlanta Housing is temporary, even if it is long term, and it provides you a pathway to your own homeownership,” Dickens said. “My dream is that you graduate out of an Atlanta Housing voucher program and that you move into an Atlanta Housing or Invest Atlanta downpayment assistance program, then move into your own home, own community and move forward and thrive. That unit you were living in then becomes available to the next person to get ready for this great opportunity that Atlanta Housing provides.”
Speaking on behalf of the Atlanta Housing Board of Commissioners, Chairman Larry Stewart said AH’s recent and current progress is the result of the agency’s current leadership and partnerships.
“I hope we solidify today that Atlanta Housing is in capable, ethical and forward-thinking hands,” Stewart said “This board isn’t ceremonial; we aren’t thinking about things and being told what to do. We are strategic, we hold ourselves and our CEO accountable to the highest standards. Financial, operational, moral. Hopefully you have seen that today that we take ourselves seriously in ensuring there is strong governance and fiscal responsibility.”
To continue current development plans and create bold and creative developments into the future, Lee believes Atlanta Housing needs strategic partners willing to collaborate in new ways.
“Currently, Atlanta Housing relies on federal resources for 98 percent of our funding,” Lee said. “Now, more than ever, Atlanta Housing needs strategic, committed local partnerships. Partners ready to lock arms with us, innovate, and invest in Atlanta’s future. So today, I’m calling on leaders from every sector—government officials, business executives, nonprofit partners, philanthropic organizations, educators, and community leaders—to join us. We need financial institutions and private-sector leaders to invest in communities historically left behind. We need developers who’ll commit to affordable units in every project—not because of access to public subsidy, but because it’s necessary. We need philanthropic partners who’ll fund innovative housing solutions, recognizing that stable housing directly impacts health, education, and economic outcomes. And we need local, state, and federal leaders, advocating loudly and clearly for sustained, predictable funding to support this critical work.”
As Atlanta Housing moves with urgency, the city known as the birthplace of public housing and the capital of affordable housing innovation will proudly host the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities’ Summer Membership Meeting this June.
Under Lee’s leadership AH will welcome some of the country’s most forward-thinking housing leaders as they discuss and chart the future of public housing.
“Time and again, Atlanta has revolutionized affordable housing policy and set standards the world has followed,” Lee said. “The last year is proof that progress isn’t confined to our history, it’s happening right here with Atlanta Housing.”
ABOUT ATLANTA HOUSING
President and Chief Executive Officer Terri M. Lee leads The Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta, Georgia (AH), the largest housing authority in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation. One of 139 Moving to Work (MTW) public housing authorities in America, AH is an industry leader in providing and facilitating affordable housing resources for nearly 27,000 low-income households comprised of approximately 45,000 people, including AH-owned residential communities, tenant-based vouchers, supportive housing, as well as down payment assistance, where innovation leads the approach to making the dream of home ownership attainable for more Atlantans. Programs are funded and regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.