CNP ATL
A blog series about the future of Atlanta.
What Connects the Gulch and the Atlanta BeltLine? A Technocratic Financial Tool Known as Tax Increment Financing.
Tying together these two massive redevelopment efforts – the Gulch and the BeltLine – and their lack of prioritizing real public benefit for Atlanta residents, is a funding mechanism called a Tax Allocation District (TAD), also known as Tax Increment Financing (TIF). Today, TIF is a go-to tool used by municipalities across the country to leverage private sector investment for the “revitalization” of designated sections of cities.
Rent Control
In August of 2018, the new owners of the Darlington Apartments in Buckhead delivered 60-day notices to each of the building’s 612 units, stating residents would have to move out of their homes or else face eviction proceedings. These notices initiated the beginning of a mass eviction that put many people into a state of panic, with lasting repercussions that affected the entire Buckhead community. Many of the residents experienced a forced disconnection from the vital social networks and support systems they depended on that were now geographically out of reach. Accordingly, the ripple effects would extend themselves to those residents’ families and the wider, and increasingly more expensive, Buckhead community left behind.
Fulton County Eviction
Fulton County has one of the highest eviction rates in the country, with approximately 800 tenants receiving an eviction notice every week, one in five over the course of a year, or 109 every day. In the 30291, 30337 and 30331 zip codes, which include Union City, College Park, and areas just west of Atlanta, eviction rates have gone above 40 percent.