The Atlanta City Council on Monday unanimously approved legislation to shine a spotlight on how the city spends its Affordable Housing Trust Fund, created to produce and preserve housing for lower income Atlantans. The fund receives 2% of Atlanta’s general fund each year, which will be about $20 million for FY 2027.
The resolution, if signed by Mayor Andre Dickens, would prompt an annual report from the mayor’s office, starting July 1, that accounts for trust fund dollars spent on affordable housing, compared with auxiliary housing programs, housing-bond debt service and employee salaries.
Transparency around how the city spends the trust is critical, said Councilmember Matt Westmoreland, who authored the legislation. “There’s a universal desire to have a better and more publicly digestible explanation for how these dollars are getting used every year,” he told Atlanta Civic Circle.
Westmoreland authored the legislation creating the fund, which he said was intended to bankroll affordable housing production and preservation. Now, he has introduced a resolution urging Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration to produce annual reports that detail how much affordable housing it has created, versus how much it has spent on auxiliary housing programs and expenses, starting with the city’s new fiscal year on July 1.
The council’s Community Development and Human Services Committee unanimously approved the resolution on April 28, teeing it up for a full-council vote next week.
