 AHA
Firsts:
Techwood Homes was the first public housing project
in the nation, completed on August 15, 1936 at a cost of approximately
$3 million. President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled
to Atlanta to dedicate Techwood Homes saying: “Within sight of us today,
stands a tribute to useful work under government supervision – the first
slum clearance and low-rent housing project.”
In 1996, AHA, along with its private-sector development partners, opened
Centennial Place, the nation’s first master-planned,
mixed-income community with public housing as a component – on the footprint
of what had been Techwood and Clark Howell Homes.
AHA was the first public housing authority in the nation to completely
privatize management of its properties, in order to concentrate
its resources on community revitalization.
In 2002, AHA was the first public housing authority in the country
to give its customers a choice about where they live. Through its
Community Leasing initiative, AHA allows its customers
to apply directly to the communities in which they wish to live rather
than a central office.
Quick
Facts:
- AHA was established as a non-profit, non-political corporation
in 1938.
- Today, AHA provides affordable housing for approximately 50,000
Atlantans.
- AHA's real estate portfolio includes 43 properties, valued
in excess of $400 million.
- AHA's innovative approach to affordable residential development
has been recognized by the John F. Kennedy School of Government
at Harvard University, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and the Chicago Sun-Times, among others.
- AHA CEO Renée Lewis Glover has been named an Outstanding
Woman in Government by the Ford Foundation and Good Housekeeping
magazine.
- AHA operates from a "whole community" philosophy.
AHA manages its portfolio based on the assumption that healthy communities
need quality affordable housing, but also good schools, wholesome
recreation and convenient access to transportation.
- By revitalizing some of Atlanta's most distressed communities,
AHA has catalyzed over $1.5 billion in new investment in less than
a decade.
- AHA's mixed-income approach to affordable housing development,
which replaces traditional public housing properties with amenity-rich,
market- quality communities where people from all socio-economic
levels live side-by-side, is considered a national model for redevelopment.
The AHA model, described as the "holy grail" of revitalization
by the Chicago Sun- Times is being used in cities across the country,
from Seattle to Denver to Baltimore.
- AHA has razed thousands of apartments since revitalization initiatives
began in 1995. Nevertheless, AHA serves more families today than
ever before. AHA has returned more hard units to occupancy in conventional
public housing properties; partnered with private developers to
build new mixed-income communities in which public-housing eligible
families live; and offered more families the choice to move when
and where they want through the Housing Choice voucher program.
- All residents at an AHA community selected for revitalization
are offered relocation housing - either an apartment at another
AHA community or a Housing Choice voucher which allows them to secure
housing in the private market.
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