Atlanta’s work to turn public land into housing is getting national attention.
The National Housing Crisis Task Force has released a new Public Asset Corporations Playbook highlighting the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation (AUD) as a model for other cities and states.
Atlanta is also helping lead the national conversation. Mayor Andre Dickens serves as a co-chair of the National Housing Crisis Task Force.
Putting Atlanta’s public land to work
Atlanta created AUD in 2023 with a straightforward goal: make better use of public land to help create more housing.
The new national playbook identifies public land as the key feature that sets Atlanta’s approach apart.
AUD works with the City to identify publicly owned land that could be put to better use and brings together the financing and development expertise needed to help move housing projects forward.
The focus is on creating more mixed-income and affordable housing while ensuring public property continues to deliver a public benefit.
What does Atlanta’s model look like?
The playbook points to several pieces of Atlanta’s approach:
- A $38 million revolving loan fund to support housing development
- $4 million in operating seed funding from the City’s housing trust fund
- Mixed-income housing with affordability standards
- Public land used to help make housing development possible
- A continued public ownership stake in development sites
- A dedicated team focused on public land, development, design and construction, financing and community engagement
Together, those tools give Atlanta more ways to get housing projects moving and make better use of assets the public already owns.
Why should Atlantans care?
Because this is ultimately about more housing and better use of public resources.
Land is a major part of the cost of building housing. Atlanta’s approach looks first at land the public already owns and asks how it can be used to meet the city’s housing needs.
It also builds affordability into the model rather than focusing only on creating new market-rate housing.
From an Atlanta idea to a national example
Now, other communities are being encouraged to learn from Atlanta.
The new playbook features just four existing models — Atlanta, Chattanooga, Cincinnati and Ireland — to show cities and states different ways this approach can work.
The Task Force plans to use the playbook to help organizations across the country design and scale similar models.
For Atlanta, the recognition is another sign that solutions being developed here at home can help shape how cities across the country tackle some of their biggest challenges.
Atlanta is putting public land to work, creating new tools to expand housing and helping provide a roadmap for other communities to do the same.
