Feed: Atlanta Housing - AggScore: 52.0

NOTICE OF THE UPCOMING BRIEFING OF THE RETIREMENT FIDUCIARY COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA TO BE HELD THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2012

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Notice is hereby given that a briefing of the Retirement Fiduciary Committee of The Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta, Georgia will take place on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. in the 3rd floor Cottonwood Room at 230 John Wesley Dobbs Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia 30303.

Notice of Fiscal Year 2013 Moving To Work Annual Plan - Comment Period Closed

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COMMENT PERIOD CLOSED

Atlanta Housing Authority Releases Audited Financial Statements for FY11

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The Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) released its Audited Financial Statement for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011 (click here to see WSB-TV report).

The audited financial statements indicate that AHA has continued to strengthen its financial position and is well-prepared to face the potential headwinds resulting from Federal budget deficits or the Congressional Appropriations process.

AHA has continued to operate as an innovator and problem solver. It has remained a nimble, efficient, and effective real estate enterprise serving low-income families. Through its various programs, AHA serves more than 20,000 very low-income families in metropolitan Atlanta.

Audited Financial Statement:

Highlight: The FY 2011 audit represents AHA’s 14th consecutive unqualified opinion on the annual audit report.

Highlight: As the result of innovative strategies and effective management and stewardship, AHA continues to maintain significant restricted cash reserves. In spite of the recent economic downturn, AHA retains approximately $100 million in cash balances. These cash balances are restricted and may only be used for affordable housing purposes consistent with AHA’s HUD-approved business plans.

• FY 11 $99,821,333
• FY 10 $99,409,155

AHA’s FY11 expenditures were $283.1 million.

Highlight: Since 1995, AHA and its private-sector development partners have leveraged well over $300 million in HOPE VI and other public housing development funds, producing more than $3 billion in new financial investments and economic impact in once-distressed and economically disinvested neighborhoods throughout the City of Atlanta.

Highlight: During FY 2011, AHA invested $21.2 million in renovations / improvements at the 13 AHA owned communities.

Highlight: During FY 2011, AHA invested $5.1 million on Human Development & Resident Services.
Background

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that each local housing authority publish, within nine months of the close of its fiscal year, a complete set of financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), consistently applied, and audited by a firm of independent certified public accountants. The AHA audit report was presented to and approved by the AHA Board of Commissioners on January 5, 2012.

Metcalf Davis, engaged by AHA to audit its FY 2011 financial statements, issued an unqualified opinion on the financial statements of the Authority for the fiscal years ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, indicating that the Authority’s financial statements present fairly the financial position of the Authority in conformity with GAAP.

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Bipartisan Policy Center Appoints Commission Members for New Effort to Improve U.S. Housing Policy

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BPC Housing Commission, led by Secretaries Cisneros and Martinez and Senators Bond and Mitchell, also Announces Schedule for 2012 Regional Forums

Dec. 13, 2011

Washington, D.C. - The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) today announced the full membership of its Housing Commission, which includes 17 business and civic leaders, key housing stakeholders, academics and former senior political figures from both parties. Former U.S. Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros and Mel Martinez, also a former U.S. Senator, former U.S. Senator Kit Bond and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and BPC Founder George Mitchell were named to lead the Commission in October.

“We are honored that our fellow Commission members have committed to join us in developing recommendations to address the nation’s troubled housing sector,” said Commission Co-Chair George Mitchell. “Housing is a highly-complex issue and a critical component of our economy. It will take a truly bipartisan group to look at the challenges ahead and develop solutions.”

Over the course of the next year, the Commission will craft a package of realistic and actionable policy recommendations that will address the future housing needs of an increasingly diverse American society. The final recommendations will be released in 2013.

Recognizing the need for a new vision for federal housing policy, the Commission aims to bring new approaches and fresh thinking to today’s housing issues. The Commission will assess the appropriate role of the federal government in housing by reviewing the effectiveness of the full range of current federal housing supports. The Commission will meet for the first time later this week.

“As the U.S. population continues to grow and change, we face new challenges for which we need a thoughtful, well-reasoned plan that addresses the short-term problems and long-term consequences of our current policies,” said former Secretary Martinez.
“This group of commissioners is positioned to do just that.”

“The Commission and its members will strive to create a beacon of hope for those citizens that have seen their American Dreams come crashing down in the recent economic collapse,” said Secretary Cisneros. “Through robust, evidenced-based analysis and in-depth deliberations, the Commission will work to develop recommendations that can be considered by members of both parties.”

“These leaders have been on the front lines of the housing crisis. Consensus across this spectrum of stakeholders is critical to the bold, comprehensive reform needed to fix our broken system,” said Senator Bond.

The Commission will actively seek input and ideas from the public and thought leaders by hosting regional forums across the country in 2012. The first forum will be in San Antonio, TX on March 6, 2012; followed by Orlando, FL on April 17, 2012; St. Louis, MO on June 5, 2012; and Bangor, ME on July 25, 2012.

Members of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission:

Co-Chairs:

• Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros
• Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former U.S. Senator Mel Martinez
• Former U.S. Senator Kit Bond
• Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader and BPC Founder George Mitchell

Commissioners:

• Carin M. Barth, Co-Founder and President, LB Capital, Inc.
• Ed Brady, President, Brady Homes
• Alfred DelliBovi, President and CEO, Federal Home Loan Bank of New York
• Robert M. Couch, Counsel, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, L.L.P.
• Laurie Goodman, Senior Managing Director, Amherst Securities
• Renee Lewis Glover, President and CEO, Atlanta Housing Authority
• Frank Keating, President and CEO, American Bankers Association
• Bruce Morrison, former Congressman from Connecticut
• Janet Murguia, President and CEO, National Council of La Raza
• Nicolas P. Retsinas, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
• Nan Roman, President and CEO, National Alliance to End Homelessness
• Ronald A. Rosenfeld, former Chairman, Federal Housing Finance Board
• Robert M. Rozen, Principal, Washington Council Ernst & Young
• Richard A. Smith, President and CEO, Realogy Corporation
• Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Dean of School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
• J. Ronald Terwilliger, Chairman Emeritus, Trammell Crow Residential
• Barry Zigas, Director of Housing Policy, Consumer Federation of America

Director:

In announcing the formation of the Commission in October, Secretaries Cisneros and Martinez, and Senators Bond and Mitchell participated in discussion on the current state of housing in the U.S. at BPC’s headquarters. Click here to watch the video. For more information about the Commission, please visit their website.

Former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros lavishes praise on AHA’s Renee Glover

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Posted in Latest Reports
Date: October 16th, 2011, 11:16 pm

By Maria Saporta

In 1994, the Atlanta Housing Authority was one of the worst in the country.

“It was basically managing substandard housing units in a substandard way,” recalled Henry Cisneros, who was secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the time. “It was one of those authorities that HUD was considering taking over under my watch.”
That’s when Renee Lewis Glover, who had been serving on the AHA board, agreed to quit her job as a corporate attorney to become CEO of the troubled authority.

“Renee brought excellence,” said Cisneros, who was in Atlanta on Oct. 7 to participate in a national conference. “She did what I would assert is the best job running a housing authority in the country.

“None started from as low a base as Atlanta did. And at the end of the day, Atlanta has gotten rid of every single one of its traditional deteriorating public housing units. Renee had a vision that it was not good enough to manage the units as they were. She developed a plan to transform communities and to make sure life got better for people.”

Glover announced in an Oct. 3 press release that she was in negotiations to leave AHA after 17 years as its CEO. The release went on to say that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the new board members that he had appointed had made it clear that they wanted a change in leadership. The negotiations are ongoing.

Cisneros said he could not speak to the “local political decision-making” that was taking place in Atlanta.

But he did say that sometimes local communities do not appreciate what they have.

“It’s tempting for local citizens to overlook true greatness in their midst and take it for granted,” Cisneros said. “The work that Renee has done is true greatness.”

What about all of the criticisms that have been leveled against Glover and the AHA for tearing down traditional public housing communities and replacing them with mixed-income neighborhoods. Today, that’s known as HUD’s HOPE VI program, an initiative that took flight in Atlanta. The AHA also increased the use of Section 8 housing vouchers where residents can live in apartments with subsidized rents.

One of the most common criticisms has been that Atlanta’s poorest citizens have been displaced and that it’s harder to provide services to the poor when they have been dispersed.
Cisneros brushed off those criticisms.

“You can’t make omlettes without breaking eggs,” Cisneros said, acknowledging that “there was criticism.”

But he went on to say that most of the objective national studies on the HOPE VI program have concluded that residents were better off — that their children do better in schools, that family incomes rise and that employment becomes more stable.

Cisneros also was asked whether after 17 years with Glover at the helm, was it time for a change.
“There’s something to be said for the continuity and stability in public housing organizations, and she’s brought that,” he said. “The job is never finished, and as long as you can have people who can continue to stay on course, the progress continues.”

Cisneros said it “would be a tragedy” that pace of progress diminished with a change in leadership at the authority.

“I can only attest to what Renee has done on her watch,” Cisneros said. “Among public housing authorities in the country, Atlanta is the best.”

HOAX: IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING HOUSING VOUCHER HOAX

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A misguided rumor concerning Section 8 vouchers and the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) is being circulated via email. Several area social service providers appear to be the target of the email hoax.

The email directs Atlanta area service providers to, "…encourage and/or take (clients) to (AHA) and assist with the application process…."

NO VOUCHERS ARE AVAILABLE.

AHA is requesting that service provider NOT direct clients to AHA as NO VOUCHERS ARE AVAILABLE.

Attempts to reach the listed author of the email have been unsuccessful.
For future reference, any official announcement concerning housing vouchers would be made directly from AHA to service providers or would be available on AHA's web site.
If you have questions, please contact AHA's Housing Choice office at 404-892-8900.

Glover Staying in Atlanta

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The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, and other news outlets have identified Renee Lewis Glover, CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority, as one of the leading candidates to fill a vacancy in the Windy City. As rewarding and exciting as it would be to work with Mayor Emanuel and the people of Chicago, Atlanta is Glover's home and she has no desire or intention to leave.

In February the Atlanta-Journal Constitution published a story suggesting Glover was considering leaving the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) to become the new superintendent of the Atlanta Public School system.

Glover was neither desirous nor seeking to leave AHA earlier this year and that core fact remains true today.

Echoing her statement earlier this year, today Glover stated emphatically, "There is no basis to the assertion that I am or would be interested in leaving AHA. I have absolutely no reason or intention of leaving the important work of community building we have undertaken at AHA."

Glover is broadly lauded and recognized for her work in Atlanta. Her name has been routinely mentioned for visible positions in Washington, DC under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Contact: Rick White (m) 404-210-9029 or (o) 404-577-8900 ext. 221

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This Week at AHA, July 25 to July 29

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It was a week of preparing for a series of important upcoming meetings and symposiums at the Atlanta Housing Authority.

Every other Wednesday, representatives from the housing authority meet with our partners to help shape the future of the neighborhood around the former University Homes. AHA is using the recently awarded Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant as a springboard to breathe fresh life into this area adjacent to the Atlanta University Center. We next meet with our partners to discuss this crucial project on Wednesday, Aug. 3.

More details are here.

For years AHA has worked to create safe and healthy communities for our senior residents to live in and age in place. The upcoming NeighborWorks America symposium, “Ensuring Safe, Healthy Homes and Communities for Seniors,” which convenes in Atlanta on Aug. 10, is another chance for the authority to pass along the knowledge it has accumulated over the years. Marvin Nesbitt, AHA Vice of President, Human Development Services, will represent AHA at symposium by appearing on two panels.

Details on this symposium can be found here.

Since ARRA-funded improvements are nearly complete at the 13 AHA-owned highrises and family properties, it’s time for more improvements to increase their viability and improve the lives of our residents. AHA has an ambitious plan to conserve money and energy at these sites that could save millions of dollars in the coming years. The plan will be presented to the AHA Board of Commissioners at its August meeting.

Details on the plan can be read here.

AHA’s Catalyst Voucher Program got a mention this week in East Atlanta Patch’s article on Summit Trail. The story can be read in its entirety here.

A story about how the Olympic legacy lives on in Atlanta since the 1996 games appeared this week on Easier.com. You can read the story here. AHA has its own Olympic Legacy Program and you can read about it in detail here.

AHA President & CEO Renee Glover recently spoke at the Baton Rouge Community Development Symposium. You can view a video of her speech here. The video is about 20 minutes long. Glover’s talk begins at 5:20.

AHA’s Facebook page is a great way to follow AHA's progress in the community. You comments are welcome, so please go here to like it and stay current with all things AHA.

The Atlanta Housing Authority is the largest housing agency in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation, serving approximately 50,000 people. AHA is committed to delivering quality affordable housing and spurring community development.

Video: Renee Glover at the Baton Rouge Community Development Symposium

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AHA President & CEO Renee Glover spoke at the Baton Rouge Community Development Symposium in May.

You can watch her speech here.

The theme of her talk was "Facing the Third Wave of America's Civil Rights Movement."

This video is approximately 20 minutes long.

AHA to participate in upcoming symposium on seniors

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AHA has made it a point for years to create safe and healthy communities for our senior residents to live in and age in place.

The upcoming NeighborWorks America symposium, “Ensuring Safe, Healthy Homes and Communities for Seniors,” will be another chance for the authority to pass along the knowledge it has accumulated over the years on this crucial subject.

Marvin Nesbitt, AHA Vice of President, Human Development Services, will represent AHA at the Aug. 10 symposium by appearing on two panels:

* It Takes a Region: The Atlanta Model. This panel brings together representatives from area non-profits, service providers, and real estate developers to discuss how Atlanta became a leading light for serving seniors in need.

* Practical Issues for Engaging Seniors in Our Communities. This panel gathers subject matter experts to discuss how to keep seniors active and productive.

“I will talk about the reasons why we made the decision to go in direction we have regarding senior housing, developing new residence service strategies, and how to get the resources they need with examples such as Connected Living and referral processes and services like fitness programs,” Nesbitt says.

Connected Living provides seniors living in AHA’s highrises to learn computer and Internet skills so that they can reach out beyond the properties to their friends and families. There are more details here.

Nesbitt will also talk about the lifelong communities initiative, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s strategy for creating residences where seniors with disabilities will age in place, and AHA’s involvement with it. There are more details here.

The NeighborWorks American symposium is a followup to the recent “Summit on Aging in Place in Public Housing” that was held in Atlanta last March. Nesbitt also participated in that summit. He spoke about the upgrades to AHA’s 13 senior and family properties and how to build partnerships with service providers.

“Other agencies were very interested in what we are doing. They asked lots of questions, about the partnerships we’ve developed, the process we use for doing resident assessments, what made us decide to use ARRA funding to do this, and how we came up with a design for our community spaces in our highrises,” Nesbitt says.

Do other housing authorities do the kind of extensive aging-in-place work that AHA does?

“Everybody does partnerships, but I don’t know if there are any as extensive as ours though,” Nesbitt says. “No one is really going in the direction we’re going in, with the exception of the New York City Public Housing Authority.”

Shaping the future near Atlanta University Center

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Every other Wednesday, AHA meets with its partners to shape the future of the neighborhood around the former University Homes.

It’s a big job. Along with The Integral Group and Urban Collage, AHA will use the recently awarded Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant as the springboard to breathe fresh life into this area adjacent to the Atlanta University Center.

The groups next meet on Wednesday, Aug. 3.

AHA anticipates a 12-month planning timetable that includes planning meetings with the Promise Executive team, neighborhood asset mapping, resident and community involvement workshops, and housing metric assessments.

Along with the Morehouse School of Medicine, which was awarded $500,000 through the Promise Neighborhoods Planning Grant from the Department of Education in September 2010, the plan is to improve educational and development outcomes for children and youth by building holistic, community-centered continuum serving children and families.

The ultimate vision for the community is still being developed, according to James Talley, AHA Senior Project Manager. However, components include high-performing schools from birth to college, a modernized infrastructure, improved public safety, vibrant and active park spaces, high-quality retail and commercial services, well thought-out transit-oriented development, access to quality healthcare options, mixed income, and high quality/high performing sustainable housing options.

Ultimately, Talley says, the goal is making the neighborhoods within the Choice Neighborhoods boundary places that people from any socioeconomic background would proudly choose to live.

AHA's immediate goals are making sure everyone is on the same page with respect to data gathering and sharing, Talley says, adding that cross-pollination between the working groups is not only essential but required.
“We also want to determine what model communities we want to invest time in investigating,” Talley says.

Is there a specific neighborhood model that the group likes?

“The neighborhood/community that immediately surrounds the University of Pennsylvania is a very strong candidate,” Talley says.

The site of the former University Homes is a mixed-use, mixed-income community from Integral, CollegeTown at West End.

Literacy Action: An AHA service provider that improves lives

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Of AHA’s many service providers, Literacy Action remains one of the most vital.

Literacy Action is where people who want to improve their reading and writing skills and get ahead in their lives can go for guidance. At its best it helps prepare people to take the General Educational Development. But it is also there for those who just want to hone these necessary skills.

“We work closely with them,” says Marvin Nesbitt, AHA’s Vice President of Human Development Services. “We refer many of our residents and have for some time now. It’s a basic literacy program, and they’re about to start administering our Good to Great literacy program, our intensive literacy program.”

The program is designed so that people sign up and go to it every day from 8 to 5, just like school. It’s deliberately intensive to get them from one literacy level to the next highest level. The length of time they are involved depends on each person’s goals as each person’s literacy level is different.

“It takes a while to get comfortable and to get ready for testing phase,” Nesbitt says. “We have participants who run the gamut of reading levels and interest. People have to express an interest in the program in order to become involved.”

Literacy Action Inc., which is located in downtown Atlanta, receives less than 20 percent of its funding from governmental agencies. AHA is one of them. The cost per student is about $2,000 with 27 part-time teachers that keep the program running.

At age 43, Literacy Action is the oldest and largest community-based adult literacy program in Georgia. It also provides life-skills training in the areas of computer training, health, finance, family, and civic engagement to AHA-assisted participants and serves 90 AHA-assisted participants at any given time throughout the year.

Literacy Action conducts afternoon classes at Atlanta Metropolitan College, evening classes at Atlanta Technical College, and offers a Learning Lab three times a week to assist students with homework. Volunteers assist teachers and support students.

Barney Simms, AHA’s Chief External Affairs Officer, serves on Literacy Action’s board.

The relationship between the two organizations is symbiotic. AHA recently held its fourth annual Senior Wellness & Resource Fair, which was dedicated to the well being of its senior residents during Healthy Older Americans Month. The fair was a success thanks to help from Literacy Action, one the fair’s sponsors.

For more information about Literacy Action, go to its website and learn more about this vital organization.

Energy savings in the future for AHA’s highrises and family properties

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Now that the ARRA-funded improvements are nearly complete at the 13 AHA-owned highrises and family properties, it’s time for more improvements to increase their viability and improve the lives of our residents.

These upgrades, which include devices that will help conserve electrical and water costs, are designed with the future and money savings in mind. They will cost about dollarsignr11 million to implement, according to Tom Hoenstine, Program Manager for REM, but will save an estimated dollarsignr17.9 million in costs over the next 20 years.

Here is a breakdown of some of the improvements AHA has in mind for the Juniper and Tenth, Cheshire Bridge, Peachtree Road, Cosby Spear, East Lake, Georgia Avenue, and Piedmont Road properties:

* New units that provide heating and cooling in the livings rooms of each apartment, with a transfer fan to increase airflow to the 1-bedroom apartaments;
* Energy-conserving compact fluorescent lights will be installed;
* Low-flow toilets will be installed, along with faucet aerators, which regulate the flow of water in the sinks, and low-flow showerheads.
* Bathrooms would be remodeled, with new mirrors and lighting fixtures.

The Barge Road, Hightower Manor, Marian Road, and Marietta Road properties would receive fan coil replacements and servicing in addition to the installation of compact fluorescent lights, low-flow toilets, faucet aerators, and low-flow showerheads.

The family properties, Martin Street Plaza and Westminster, would receive the energy-saving compact fluorescent lights, faucet aerators, and low-flow showerheads.

All the properties except for Martin Street would also be treated to new weatherization – increasing the amount of insulation in the building walls and caulking up gaps in the window units, where the majority of the energy loss is located.

All the major systems will also receive a tune up.

The plan for the implementation of these improvements in scheduled to be presented to the AHA Board of Commissioners at its August meeting.

AHA nears end of Discovery, Design & Planning for new Integrated ERP system

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AHA is on Week 15 of the Discovery, Design and Planning phase of implementing its new Integrated ERP system. There are five weeks remaining in this phase as it prepares to use Yardi Voyager as its new platform for managing property, assets, and financial performance.

Weeks 19 and 20 will be dedicated to the planning phase of the project.

The new system will help AHA streamline its efforts, said Samir Saini, AHA’s Chief Technology Officer.

Improvements include automating AHA’s business processes, introduce paperless processes, eliminate many processes that are now done manually, eliminate data-entry redundancies, create one source of the truth, and create 100% data accuracy and completeness.

It will also create automated data exchange with external partners, such as the property management companies that run AHA-owned properties. Data about those properties will, once the new system is operating, come directly from the property managers to AHA. This will reduce administrative effort and time it currently takes to transfer the data, creating “a level of transparency we’ve never had before,” Saini said.

This immediacy appeals to Suzi Reddekopp, AHA’s chief financial officer, who said the new system extends also to other communities.

“Our previous departmental silo approach made it very difficult to obtain real-time visibility of our entire portfolio of affordable housing units in mixed-income communities. We needed a much higher degree of integration of our critical business processes, along with better business intelligence tools to analyze our assets and performance,” she said “It will further professionalize our real estate business and enable AHA to better serve our assisted families.”

The new system is composed of a software suite specifically designed for affordable housing management and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reporting.

The new Integrated ERP system will be implemented in a phased approach beginning in the current fiscal year with a payback period for the investment estimated at three to four years. The savings will be dollarsignr3.5 million to dollarsignr4.5 million annually into perpetuity.

This Week at AHA: July 18th to July 22nd

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AHA is completing Week 15 of the Discovery, Design and Planning phase of implementing its new Integrated ERP system. There are five weeks remaining in this phase as the authority prepares to implement Yardi Voyager as its new platform for managing property, assets, and financial performance.

Weeks 19 and 20 will be dedicated to the planning phase of the project.

The new system will help AHA streamline its administrative efforts, said Samir Saini, AHA’s Chief Technology Officer.

Improvements include automating AHA’s business processes, introducing paperless processes, eliminating many processes that are now done manually, eliminating data-entry redundancies, creating one source of the truth, creating 100% data accuracy and completeness, and creating automated data exchange with AHA’s external partners

The new Integrated ERP system will be implemented in a phased approach during the current fiscal year with a payback period for the investment estimated at three to four years. The savings will be $3.5 million to $4.5 million annually into perpetuity.

The announcement of AHA’s choice of Yardi Voyager as its new platform appeared on Business Wire. You can read the entire story here.

Connected Living, the company which oversees connecting AHA’s seniors living in highrises to the Internet, was featured in Mass High Tech, a publication that covers next-generation technologies in New England. AHA was mentioned in a story about Connected Living’s work with getting seniors in assisted living facilities linked with the Internet and friends and family.

“This is a huge deal for the families who feel disconnected,” said Sarah Hoit, Connected Living’s CEO.

You can read the entire story here.

An Associated Press story entitled “Aging boomers strain US cities built for the young” mentions AHA’s efforts to improve the lives of its senior residents appeared in the Delaware (OH) Gazette. The story highlight AHA’s work with the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Lifelong Communities Initiative to help seniors in Atlanta age in place.

“The Atlanta Housing Authority is working with the commission to retrofit high-rise apartments that house a lot of older residents, with the goal to improve access to the surrounding community. At one site under construction, changes include a ramp entrance, safer sidewalk to the bus stop and more time for pedestrians to cross the street,” the AP reported.

Read the entire story here.

AHA was mentioned in a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about HUD funding. The Department of Housing and Urban Development gave Georgia $71.8 million to renovate and improve public housing, according to the AJC, which added that the largest recipients of the money are the Atlanta Housing Authority with $14 million, the Marietta Housing Authority with $1.2 million, the Housing Authority of Fulton County with $665,887, the Housing Authority of Decatur with $415,071, and the Newnan Housing Authority with $646,433.

You can read the entire story here.

AHA’s Facebook page is a great way to follow AHA's progress in the community. You comments are welcome, so please go here to like it and stay current with all things AHA.

The Atlanta Housing Authority is the largest housing agency in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation, serving approximately 50,000 people. AHA is committed to delivering quality affordable housing and spurring community development.