A multi-pronged Sweet Auburn facility that’s being called a first for the City of Atlanta is gearing up for its official debut next week.
Having replaced a one-story commercial building at 302 Decatur Street where Project Community Connections Inc. operated for decades, Thrive Sweet Auburn is designed to be a “one-stop shop” for Atlanta’s homeless community in need of services—and a springboard back into society that’s operated by experts, according to project leaders.
Mercy Housing Southeast, the project's developer, and PCCI have scheduled a grand opening Wednesday for the new mid-rise facility on the eastern fringes of downtown, located about a block from MARTA’s King Memorial Station. Grady Memorial Hospital is just down the street in the other direction.
Thrive Sweet Auburn's location just east of downtown at 302 Decatur Street SE. Google Maps
The 117-unit building's Bell Street facade and garage entry today. Courtesy of Mercy Housing/PCCI
Officials tell Urbanize Atlanta the Thrive Sweet Auburn facility falls under the category of “service-enriched housing,” offering not just a place to stay but medical services, onsite staffing, and a coffee shop for socializing.
Three residential floors will offer 117 apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedroom units.
Most units will be reserved for residents earning 30, 50, or 80 percent of the area’s median income; elsewhere, 23 apartments are being set aside as permanent supportive housing for families working their way out of homelessness, with others reserved for U.S. military veterans, officials say.
We’ve asked for info on what the range of monthly rents will be, and we’ll update this story should those details come. An application window for the initial lottery to live at Thrive Sweet Auburn closed in January, but Mercy Housing is accepting applications now for a waitlist.
Beyond the apartments, Thrive Sweet Auburn features roughly 12,000 square feet of commercial space for organizations offering homeless support services, including help for job-seekers, a medical clinic, and the coffeehouse.
Rendering showing the building's placement on the Sweet Auburn corner. Courtesy of Mercy Housing/PCCI; designs, Goode Van Slyke Architecture
The Thrive Sweet Auburn project in January. Google Maps
PCCI has operated on the corner since 1999 and will keep its headquarters on the first floor, alongside First Step Staffing offices and a community kitchen.
Other points of interest nearby, as officials note, include the Martin Luther King Natatorium, Selena S. Butler Park, Georgia State University, and Mercy Care’s growing healthcare and housing complex on Gartrell Street.
Thrive Sweet Auburn’s debut follows wins for affordable housing advocates in places west and south of downtown in recent weeks.
Those include nonprofit City of Refuge’s second project, which has remade a crumbling hotel in Bankhead into another service-focused housing venture, and a new 84-unit community called Haven at South Atlanta where rents start around $800.
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