Housing Assurance

Across America the supply of housing is too low to meet demand, resulting in high prices that many economists describe as an affordability crisis. There is no state or county where a renter working full-time at a minimum wage job can afford a two-bedroom apartment, while 70% of all extremely low-income families are severely cost-burdened, paying more than half their income on rent. Unfortunately, DeKalb County is no different. In 2021, at the height of the pandemic, the DeKalb County Housing Authority maintained a waiting list of over 40,000 individuals seeking affordable housing. Today, over 20,000 individuals remain in need of affordable housing in DeKalb. Among the renting population, nearly 50% pay more than 30% of their income towards rent. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, nationally there is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for our nation’s 10.8 million plus extremely low-income families.

As CEO, my administration will focus on increasing both rental and single-family housing inventory through strategic efforts under focused leadership. I will use science to dictate housing needs and I will encourage home ownership as a way to build wealth, as I expand upon partnerships with organizations like Operation HOPE to provide down-payment assistance to easily transition first-time homebuyers to homeowners. In 2019 I partnered with Operation HOPE to open HOPE at Stonecrest through funding provided by RBC Bank for two full-time financial consultants. To date our partnership has resulted in over $20 million dollars in down-payment assistance and first-time home loans to support home ownership in DeKalb County.