ATLANTA — Mayor Andre Dickens has a goal of building or preserving 20,000 affordable housing units in the city by 2030 and he's turning to some of the city's most faithful partners to help achieve it.
Many Atlanta churches own hundreds of acres of undeveloped land and the Faith-based Development Initiative has forged a partnership with them to turn that land into properties that can provide homes that folks can afford.
It’s a big effort and is still in the planning phases.
“We have 15 faith partners who are in the process of developing their land for affordable housing. We have 43 faith institutions that have agreed to," said Josh Humphries, senior policy advisor to the mayor.
Humphries says there are well over 1,000 acres of land owned by faith-based organizations that will become affordable housing for Atlanta residents.
One of the institutions is the Interdenominational Theological Center which is in the heart of the Atlanta University Center.
The ITC plans to revamp existing housing units and build more on the land they own.
“They are in the process of planning out their 10-acre campus to do mixed-use with affordable housing and bring new student auditoriums and other facilities alongside affordable housing," Humphries said.
ITC President Matthew Williams says he’s pleased the faith community is jumping in to make an impact in this area.
“Not only ITC but the broader faith community is very aware of housing and addressing the needs of the so-called least of these is core to who were are," Williams said.
City officials said that funding for the developments will come from many sources.