KarunaNews Story

The Atlanta Metro Area lost over 200,000 affordable housing units between 2018 and 2023, leaving the city thousands of units short for low-income renters. The Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile multi-use trail and transit corridor in the heart of Georgia’s state capital, is part of a larger effort to build more than 5,000 affordable homes by 2030. It is already 69% of the way there and recently, the city opened its first adaptive reuse development along the Beltline. Ralph David House is named after civil rights icon Ralph David Abernathy, an ordained Baptist minister who was a friend and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. The motel built in the 1960s was transformed into 56 modern studio apartments for individuals or families reserved for those earning 30% of the area median income or less, and those who were recently homeless. Rents and utility costs combined will be capped at 30% of each tenant’s income. “This is the first time the Atlanta Beltline has invested in this kind of project,” said Beltline president and CEO Clyde Higgs. “We saw this as a catalytic opportunity to continue guiding equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development in Atlanta, which has many historically disinvested neighborhoods.”