The Atlanta Civic Circle has investigated concerns raised by city council members regarding the use of the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, established to support affordable housing initiatives.
Mayor Andre Dickens’ office provided a detailed 4,159-row spreadsheet of transactions from the fund since its inception in late 2021, leading to a deeper analysis of how the funds have been allocated.
Initially created to ensure consistent funding for affordable housing, the trust fund has recently diverted approximately $4 million to cover salaries for city staff and another $8.8 million to service housing bond debt.
These expenditures make up over 75% of the total $17 million received from the city’s general fund for fiscal year 2025.
At the beginning of the fiscal year, the housing trust fund had $28 million but has decreased to $4.7 million by April.
Historically, the fund was rarely utilized for payroll expenses, and it had never previously been used for housing bond payments.
Atlanta’s Chief Financial Officer, Mohamed Balla, explained that this shift in funding strategy was necessary to address a budget deficit from FY 2024.
The city has accumulated $175 million in bond debt since FY 2024 to support housing initiatives, including a $100 million issuance for Housing Opportunity Bonds and a $75 million Homeless Opportunity Project bond to create new housing units.
The reallocation of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund has raised serious concerns among housing advocates and several city officials.
William McFarland, vice-chair of the Atlanta Housing Commission, expressed that the fund is being perceived as functioning more like a slush fund than a dedicated trust meant for housing development.
City Councilmember Matt Westmoreland, who authored the legislation for the trust in 2021, emphasized that the intent was to promote deeper levels of affordability, suggesting that while some fund usage for debt service is acceptable, funding for staffing is more troubling.
During discussions on the trust fund’s purpose, the Atlanta Housing Commission identified that funding should primarily be directed towards producing low-income and very-low-income housing units.
Concerns were further magnified when the city council allocated $500,000 from the trust fund to support a nonprofit addressing food insecurity in 2022, raising questions about the trust fund’s spending priorities.
In defense of these funding decisions, Balla stated that the trust is now financing approximately 40 positions primarily within the planning department and mayor’s office, more than double from previous years.
He justified the use of the trust fund for housing bond debt payments, clarifying that it originates from the general fund rather than a dedicated revenue stream.
Balla argued that without leveraging the housing trust for these debts, the city could struggle to secure funds for new housing projects.
Local housing advocates, however, called this reasoning into question, asserting that effective models employed by other cities include dedicated property tax increases for backing housing bonds.
Matthew Nursey, policy director for the Housing Justice League, indicated that the trust fund should focus on social housing creation, advocating for clearer transparency surrounding its funds and the spending process.
The opaque bookkeeping surrounding the trust fund became evident when Atlanta Civic Circle acquired a comprehensive ledger through an open records request, detailing all fund transactions since its establishment.
The spreadsheet contained numerous entries listed simply as “Journal Import Created,” which obscured the nature of various expenditures, including significant payments to unidentified consulting services.
For example, the presence of over $5 million allocated for “Consulting/Professional Services” spanned from late September 2023 to April 2025, including two payments of $1 million each without clear attribution.
Additionally, a payment of $4 million was made in December 2023 to an entity labeled only as “Supplier #.2401452,” prompting questions when a $2 million return was subsequently documented.
Balla acknowledged the disorganized ledger and committed to investigating these unclear entries, though he suggested that many payments likely had legislative backing.
This lack of clarity has made it almost impossible for stakeholders to ascertain how much of the housing trust fund has been directly allocated for housing construction or other initiatives that maintain housing stability.
Since its launch, the trust fund has been utilized for various anti-displacement efforts, including grants for eviction prevention, a home repair fund, and property tax subsidies for long-term residents facing gentrification.
In light of these concerns, Westmoreland plans to introduce new legislation in June aimed at refining the use of the housing trust fund.
Both Schneggenburger and McFarland of the Atlanta Housing Commission encouraged adding regulations to ensure the fund predominantly supports deeply affordable housing and restricts its use for payroll or debt service payments.
Westmoreland confirmed his openness to considering such proposals.
Natallie Keiser, executive director of HouseATL, stressed the fund’s purpose should be to assist the city’s poorest residents with housing access and stability.
A housing trust is ideally suited for providing grant subsidies, not debt payments, to meet housing needs for those at the lower end of the economic spectrum.
Despite ongoing discussions and proposals for reform, the Dickens administration remains committed to utilizing a part of the housing trust fund for housing bond debt and payroll, in addition to direct housing initiatives.
For FY 2026, the city has earmarked $19.5 million from the general fund’s 2% allocation for the housing trust.
Of this amount, $5.5 million is planned for annual debt servicing of the Housing Opportunity and Homeless Opportunity Project bonds, while $1 million is designated for personnel costs related to affordable housing efforts.
This ongoing allocation strategy of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund signals a significant point of contention as stakeholders push to maintain the original intent of the fund while addressing the pressing needs for housing in Atlanta.
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