Professor Larry Keating, a stalwart advocate for housing reform and social justice in Atlanta, passed away at the age of 83 on July 26, as announced by his family.
His legacy leaves metro Atlanta with both a daunting agenda ahead and a remarkable portfolio of achievements.
Keating, who was the Professor Emeritus at Georgia Tech’s School of City and Regional Planning, held a Ph.D. in planning from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, alongside Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Architecture from Virginia Tech.
He was also an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
Joining the faculty of the Graduate City Planning Program in 1973, Keating dedicated himself to teaching planning theory, history, social policy, and housing.
With his passing, only emeritus professors Tom Debo (1976) and Catherine Ross (1979) remain as the longest-serving faculty members in the department’s history, which was established in 1952.
Keating was not just an academic; he was deeply involved in the community.
He co-founded the Community Design Center of Atlanta soon after arriving at Georgia Tech, where he served as both a fundraiser and advisor.
This non-profit organization, based at 5th and West Peachtree for many years, provided planning, design services, and advocacy for low-income neighborhoods in the Atlanta area.
In the mid-1980s, he played a crucial role in exposing discrimination in mortgage lending in Atlanta through collaboration with journalist Bill Dedman of the Atlanta Constitution.
Keating connected Dedman with city planning graduate student Stan Fitterman, who examined thousands of mortgage loan records in local courthouses.
Dedman’s investigative series, published in 1988, revealed that banks and savings and loans in Atlanta denied loans in middle-class and affluent Black neighborhoods while approving them in poor white neighborhoods.
A subsequent 1989 story highlighted a nationwide trend, showing that Black applicants were rejected at twice the rate of white applicants and that high-income Black applicants were often denied loans at the same rate as low-income white applicants.
This groundbreaking series, titled “The Color of Money,” earned Dedman the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1989.
The revelations from this series triggered significant changes.
Congress amended the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to increase public data accessibility, and the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Decatur Federal Savings & Loan — a historic first in mortgage lending litigation.
In a remarkable display of corporate responsibility, major Atlanta banks allocated $65 million to provide low-interest loans to moderate-income borrowers, particularly on the city’s Southside.
Dedman reflected on Keating’s impact, stating, “Larry was a tremendous help to a young reporter trying to make sense of banking, development, and the history of Atlanta’s neighborhoods during a critical time.”
Keating was significantly involved in the Atlanta Community Reinvestment Alliance, advocating for attention to the concerning patterns of loan denials in Black neighborhoods.
With his academic work, Keating, along with Fitterman and others, continued to scrutinize the banking industry’s responses to the issues highlighted in “The Color of Money.”
In the following decades, particularly during the 1990s and 2000s, Keating became a vocal critic of HUD’s Hope VI initiatives, which aimed to replace traditional public housing with mixed-income developments.
Key projects like Techwood Homes and East Lake Meadows, redeveloped around the time of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, exemplified these changes, which have now resulted in sweeping transformations across Atlanta Housing properties.
In 1990, the Atlanta Housing Authority managed 14,700 units, while projections for 2025 suggest that there are now “over 4,000” affordable units available.
The original premise of the Hope VI initiative suggested that the Housing Choice Voucher Program would adequately compensate for the loss of public housing, enabling low-income households to secure rentals in the private marketplace.
However, in 2008, Keating testified before a Georgia legislative committee, emphasizing that any social merits of the new mixed-income projects were overshadowed by the lack of federal funding for HUD and local housing authorities to construct replacement units.
Keating led the Atlanta Gentrification Taskforce, fighting to prevent the displacement of low- and moderate-income renters.
His advocacy extended to several other initiatives, including the establishment of land banks to utilize surplus or tax-delinquent properties and advocating for a reform in the calculation of area median income (AMI) to better reflect eligibility for housing assistance.
Despite significant progress over the years, many reforms he championed remain unfulfilled.
Currently, Atlanta faces an escalating homelessness crisis, a persistent shortage of housing for the poor, and a lack of affordable options for middle-class residents — challenges that have reached levels not seen since just after World War II.
The housing supply issues were further complicated by the 2008 Great Recession, which devastated the home building sector and dramatically slowed construction.
Moreover, inconsistencies in local zoning and permitting policies often discourage affordable housing development.
This market dynamic incentivizes developers to focus on luxury housing rather than entry-level options, making it increasingly evident that Atlanta is enduring a housing crisis.
In wrapping up a poignant reflection on Keating’s life and work, it’s clear he would have highlighted the urgent need for systemic changes in Atlanta’s housing policies.
“Larry Keating was too modest to say this, so I will on his behalf: ‘I told you so,’” concluded Don Broussard, a former student and city planning consultant who served as Keating’s thesis advisor at Georgia Tech.
Keating’s contributions to housing reform and social justice in the Atlanta community will be remembered for years to come.
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