Efforts to increase Atlanta’s stock of affordable housing got a major boost this week when the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta received pledges of $200 million to build and preserve the city’s inventory. 

The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation and Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation committed $100 million to the effort, and Mayor Andre Dickens pledged to work with City Council to pass a $100 million affordable housing bond in what the parties billed as a “first-of-its-kind” public-private partnership. 

“Affordable housing has been central in my administration, and today’s announcement is a gamechanger in our ability to have projects keep pace with a rapidly evolving market,” Dickens said in a press release. “Thank you to the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation and Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation for their generosity, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta for their steadfast partnership and the Atlanta City Council in advance for their collaboration on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide affordability relief for Atlantans.” 

Specifically, the Community Foundation will use the public-private funding to expedite development of affordable housing on publicly owned land, preserve affordability where it already exists and secure additional funding to get shovel-ready projects under construction. 

“In every city, the trends have been moving in the wrong direction for entirely too long and too many people are struggling,” Fernandez said. “But we have a window of time particularly in the next three years to change the trajectory in Atlanta. That is why we are moving with urgency to bring together all our partners, to have all hands-on deck and make a lasting change in housing.”