Affordable Housing Task Force

“To undo the inequitable practices of the past, communities must both leverage and work against the dynamics of the private housing market, and they must acknowledge the historical patterns of racial and economic segregation, and work to mitigate them as they play out in the current environment.”

Decatur Affordable Housing Task Force Report, February 2020

 

Decatur Affordable Housing Task Force

In 2019, the Decatur City Commission created the Affordable Housing Task Force and appointed twenty-six community members from an open call for participants to serve on the task force. The charge of the task force was to research and develop recommendations for new policies, programs and initiatives for the creation of new workforce and affordable housing and preservation of existing workforce and affordable housing units already in the City of Decatur. The result of a six-month study was the Affordable Housing Task Force report. The task force’s findings showed that new private development within the city limits excluded low- and moderate-income households from all areas of the city to the public’s detriment, often causing the destruction and replacement of existing affordable housing.

The report outlines five primary goals around which twenty-three recommendations to implement affordable housing solutions are organized.

The City of Decatur has taken great strides to understand and mitigate their housing affordability and diversity issues, the culmination of which resulted in the Decatur Affordable Housing Task Force (AHTF) Report on the Findings and Recommendations for Decatur’s Future Affordability and Inclusivity, accepted by the City Commission in February 2020. It is extensive in its breadth and scope, and incorporates over a decade of planning efforts, including a variety of plans, analyses, and events. As such, this project will rely heavily on the findings, goals, and recommendations presented therein as a basis from which affordable housing programs may be successfully established.

The recommendations in the AHTF Report were further vetted by the community at large during the 2020 Strategic Plan process. Those recommendations that remain incomplete and are implementable by the local government and its partners were formally adopted as part of the 2020 Strategic Plan to be implemented over the next 10 years, if not completed sooner. 

The link to the report can be found here.

For current status of Affordable Task Force Recommendations, go to https://www.decaturga.com/planning/page/decatur-acts-affordable-housing-task-force-report .