Atlanta Housing (AH) CEO Terri Lee struck an optimistic chord at the first-ever State of Atlanta Housing address on Tuesday, touting a surge of affordable housing projects that AH has built, is building, or has in its development pipeline.
The city of Atlanta is over halfway done producing and preserving the 20,000 units of affordable housing that Mayor Andre Dickens promised on the 2020 campaign trail, Lee said. (AH has committed to producing half of that figure, or 10,000 units.) And the long-awaited redevelopments of the Atlanta Civic Center, Bowen Homes, and other AH-owned properties are moving forward, she added.
However, brief portions of Lee’s speech signaled an undercurrent of anxiety at the housing authority, as the Trump administration threatens to cut the federal funding that AH and other local housing authorities rely on. Fully 98% of AH’s $534 million FY 2025 budget comes from the federal government, she noted — and 94% of the budget is housing-voucher funding to subsidize low-income people’s rent from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“Federal funding that we count on serves as the backbone for the work that we do and the families that we serve,” Lee said in the final moments of her 48-minute address. “Now, more than ever, we need strategic, committed local and national partners ready to lock arms with us and invest in the future.”
In other words: Atlanta and other major cities might need to rethink financing strategies to become less reliant on the feds.
Lee admitted that the Trump administration’s proposed federal funding freeze was alarming. “We breathed a deep sigh of relief when the memo was lifted,” she said. A federal court quickly blocked the freeze, and the White House Office of Management and Budget rescinded the January memo instituting it — but the legality of the freeze is still undergoing litigation.
If the freeze took effect — or if the Trump administration slashed AH funding otherwise — it could punch a $1.4 billion hole in Atlanta’s affordable housing budget, according to internal city documents obtained by Atlanta Civic Circle. That loss would jeopardize the Civic Center, Bowen Homes, Two Peachtree office tower, and Midtown fire station redevelopments, which collectively hinge on more than $500 million in federal grants, construction loans, mortgage insurance programs, and voucher subsidies.
The freeze would also put more than 18,000 families who rely on housing vouchers at risk of losing the often life-saving subsidies, Dickens said in February. (AH’s FY 2025 budget projected the agency would spend $291 million housing almost $22,000 renters.)
That specter still hangs over the city: While the funding freeze is now tied up in a legal battle, the Trump administration has in recent weeks exhibited a willingness to flout judges’ orders.
What’s more, tariffs will likely drive up construction costs, and the Trump administration’s cuts to HUD staff could limit HUD’s ability to inspect and maintain properties and process voucher applications.
“Will there be budget cuts? I don’t know,” Lee said in an interview after the address. “We’re doing everything in our power to make sure that we continue to house people. The reality of it is, though, if we have no federal funding, we would be at risk of not being able to serve our families.”
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Lee told Atlanta Civic Circle. “With the level of muzzle velocity [at the Trump White House], I can’t predict what will happen from day to day. But I can say we are working with a very different landscape — one we have not seen before. So we as an agency are partnering with other housing authorities and advocacy groups across the country to ensure we can best position ourselves at this time so we can make sure the families we serve continue to stay served.”
While Congress has not targeted federal housing programs for cuts in the short term, even flat federal funding could constrain the city’s ability to produce additional affordable housing, Georgia State University housing expert Dan Immergluck said in an email.
“Since the cost of developing housing or subsidizing housing has increased faster than the rate of inflation, even a flat or inflation-adjusted allocation would be an effective cut and deliver fewer affordable units to the city,” he said.
“I also worry that under such constraints and with the mayor’s 20,000-unit goal, the housing authority and others are under pressure to do more ‘easier’ shallow-affordability units rather than the deeper subsidy that is most needed and that will have a much bigger impact on homelessness and eviction rate,” Immergluck said.
In other words, the city might have to build more units for households earning 80% of the area median income ($86,000 for a family of four) than for those making 50% of the AMI or less (under $54,000) to make projects pencil out.
image source from：https://atlantaciviccircle.org/2025/04/15/atlanta-housing-celebrates-progress-trump-cuts-loom/
