The Beltline was once falling behind on affordable housing. It’s caught up.

“Now more than ever, our city needs access to safe, affordable housing,” Clyde Higgs, president and CEO of Atlanta Beltline Inc., the city-ordained entity in charge of the trail’s development, said in a news release. “For 20 years, the Beltline has been the People’s Project, and we remain dedicated to our commitment to create affordable housing with urgency.”

The Beltline on Thursday announced it has created, preserved or is actively building 4,425 affordable units, which is 79% of the way to its goal. A breakdown was not immediately provided of how many units are open versus under development.

It’s an effort that mirrors Mayor Andre Dickens’ goal of creating 20,000 affordable housing units citywide by 2030. At the start of his second term, the administration said it was about two-thirds of the way to meeting that goal, with more than 13,000 units delivered, completed, under construction or funded to date.

With several housing projects either under construction or in the development pipeline, Beltline officials said the question isn’t whether they’ll hit its goal — it’s how much they’ll exceed it.

“We also have some phased developments that are happening beyond 2030,” Dennis Richards, vice president of housing policy and development, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Those will deliver units well beyond that 5,600 (goal).”

While the initial plan for the Beltline traces back to Ryan Gravel’s master’s thesis at Georgia Tech in 1999, the 22-mile trail loop’s development began in earnest with city backing in 2005. Atlanta leaders created the Beltline Tax Allocation District — an area where property tax revenue growth is allocated to pay for infrastructure within its boundaries — that acted as a financing mechanism for the trail’s development while also specifying additional goals.

The first sections of the Beltline sparked adjacent real estate frenzies, creating a new skyline of luxe towers in Old Fourth Ward and popular mixed-use destinations in the burgeoning West Midtown neighborhoods. Affordability — or lack thereof — emerged as a controversy for the Beltline as longtime residents saw their property taxes balloon, stoking concerns over gentrification.

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal

Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal

In mid-2017, an AJC investigation found the Beltline had only funded 785 affordable homes and was way behind schedule. Higgs in a November interview with the AJC said affordability challenges spurred a change in strategy by the late 2010s.

“We need to make sure that we control the dirt, so that we can exact commercial affordability and housing affordability,” he said.

The Beltline began acquiring land across its trail corridor, seeking development opportunities where it could inject affordability beyond the city’s minimum requirements. Its land portfolio is now 94 acres.

The number of affordable units the Beltline has supported has doubled since 2018, of which nearly three-fourths were reserved for people earning 60% or less of the area median income. That’s $68,520 for a family of four.

Last year, the Beltline tallied 299 new affordable units.

Richards said that will increase because several Beltline-owned sites are on the cusp of breaking ground. Roughly 500 affordable units are in active development across the Beltline’s trail loop with several other housing projects in the works.

“We look at it as a flywheel effect where we have good momentum right now,” he said. “So we’ll be sustaining that.”

For example, developer Portman Holdings received city approval last year to redevelop Amsterdam Walk, which is slated to include more than 220 apartments at below market rate. The project is likely to break ground next year, Richards said.

Credit: Courtesy Portman Holdings, SOM Architects

Credit: Courtesy Portman Holdings, SOM Architects

The Beltline and developer Urban Realty Partners in February announced a plan to incorporate the historic Cut Rate Box Co. buildings along Murphy Avenue into a mixed-use project with 126 loft-style apartments. More than 65% of those will be reserved at below market-rate rents.

The Beltline is also pursuing its latest vision to redevelop the 20-acre Murphy Crossing site after its last development partnership collapsed. The latest plan includes 625 residential units, of which an undetermined number will have more affordable rents. It’s unclear when that property will be developed.

Credit: Courtesy of Atlanta Beltline Inc.

Credit: Courtesy of Atlanta Beltline Inc.

Earlier this year, the Beltline launched an affordable housing dashboard that tracks its goals and completed projects.

In addition, the Beltline in 2020 launched a program to offset property tax increases for legacy residents. It covers the cost of property tax increases through 2030, and it has 276 homeowners in the program at the end of last year. Participating homeowners have experienced a combined $9.2 million in increased home values since enrolling, according to the Beltline.

“This program is about stability,” said Rob Brawner, executive director of Atlanta Beltline Partnership, the trail’s foundation arm, in the release. He added that it helps “longtime homeowners remain in their neighborhoods so they can benefit from the new opportunities, healthier living and improved quality of life the Beltline is creating.”