Like any Atlantan who owns a home near popular Beltline trails can attest, the city’s “glorified sidewalk” has translated to a financial boon for more than just developers and business owners.
But according to Atlanta Beltline Inc., a program meant to lift up longtime residents who aren’t pulling large salaries near historically underserved sections of the 22-mile loop is also seeing positive results.
During the pandemic autumn of 2020, Beltline officials launched the Legacy Resident Retention Program as an effort to preserve affordability for lower-income Atlanta homeowners who wish to stay put and not sell out.
The program—financially backed by some of the city's largest corporations and most influential charities—has since lent property tax relief to 250 homeowners in what the Beltline considers “neighborhood stabilization areas” near southern and western trail corridors.
The resulting statistics, released this week as part of a Beltline affordable housing overview, could be eye-opening.
The tax-relief program is open to residents who've owned their homes since at least March 2017 and earn at max 100 percent of the city’s Area Median Income. (In 2024, for a two-person household, that would mean an income limit of $86,000.) It essentially freezes some homeownership costs by covering the increase in property taxes beyond what they were in 2019.
The latest Beltline Northeast Trail section to open, in relation to Piedmont Park's dog park. Photo by LoKnows Drones; courtesy of Atlanta Beltline Inc.
Homeowners who’ve been in the program for at least a year have seen their home values appreciate by nearly $50,000 on average—and some have watched values balloon by more than $200,000 since entering, according to Beltline officials.
Collectively, the 250 program participants have seen property values swell by $10.8 million, according to Fulton County tax records appraised value. Each homeowner has received an average of $2,174 in annual property tax assistance, per Beltline leadership.
In four years, the retention program has become Atlanta’s largest anti-displacement initiative and a tool for tackling the city’s infamous wealth disparities, per program leaders.
“We want residents who lived in these neighborhoods for years before the Beltline was built to benefit from the economic opportunities, healthy living, and cultural vibrancy the Beltline creates,” said Rob Brawner, Atlanta Beltline Partnership executive director, in this week’s announcement.
According to Brawner, nearly 2,000 Atlantans remain eligible for the program, and fundraising efforts to assist them are ongoing.
Program donors to date include the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Georgia Power, Rocket Community Fund, Delta Air Lines, Bank of America, Tull Charitable Foundation, Google, Truist, Kaiser Permanente, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
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