Where did the Atlanta Public Housing residences go?

[tikigod311]

Old national wasn't really that nice before they started tearing down public housing. But it does seem worse now than before. I get the feeling that the area lacks good police coverage and the 4 lane racetrack that is Old National is terrible for such a area with a lot of pedestrians.

So it goes when a bunch of cheap housing is built. Just like Clayton County with its sea of tract homes and .25 acre lots. Those areas never retain their value and end up a perfect location for low income landlords/Section 8.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by SAAN

To me it cleaned up Atlanta and destroyed Stone Mountain, Lithonia, and Decatur and some of Northern Clayton County in the process.

Yep! I was living in Stone Mountain/Lithonia area and it went straight to hell. Even the brand new subdivisions being built out there were being flooded and those started going to hell very shortly after they were built. I'm talking after just a few months.

A lot of people were buying up homes in the area for the sole purpose of renting to Sec. 8 tenants. I don't think people being on Sec. 8 itself is the problem, but I do think it has to do with the mentality of those who come from housing projects and received the vouchers.

[shivtim]

^Are you guys just completely oblivious? These studies disprove what you're saying. The common suburban talking point that public housing residents moved to the suburbs and brought crime is just false. Please read the article and the studies.

Many in metro Atlanta assume that the city’s system of private vouchers has pushed former residents out to the suburbs, particularly the increasingly poor and increasingly non-white Clayton County to the south. But Williams’ efforts to track former public housing residents have shown this isn’t necessarily the case. “Everyone pretty much has this idea that’s really not grounded by facts,” he says.

Most of the residents that The Atlanta Way follows stayed within the city or the surrounding jurisdiction of Fulton County. Williams cites evidence from a 2011 study by Georgia States’ Deirdre Oakley, which found that most residents ended up in new places within, on average, three miles of their former homes.

If there are more section 8 tenants in Stone Mountain, Decatur, Lithonia (which I'm not even sure there is, do you have data showing this is the case?) they didn't come from Atlanta public housing. Blame the economic downturn or blame Hurricane Katrina displacement, but the evidence clearly shows they didn't come from Atlanta public housing.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by shivtim

^Are you guys just completely oblivious? These studies disprove what you're saying. The common suburban talking point that public housing residents moved to the suburbs and brought crime is just false. Please read the article and the studies.



If there are more section 8 tenants in Stone Mountain, Decatur, Lithonia (which I'm not even sure there is, do you have data showing this is the case?) they didn't come from Atlanta public housing. Blame the economic downturn or blame Hurricane Katrina displacement, but the evidence clearly shows they didn't come from Atlanta public housing.

I never said there were more section 8 tenants in Stone Mountain. I don't know that stats on that. I just know that when I lived in the area, it went to hell once they started moving in and I had to leave because it was no longer safe.

[cwkimbro]

To those who keep saying that tenants of the projects haven't moved into the suburbs need to realize that the proper data to track such a think isn't really available at all.

The only studies that have existed on the matter have only been very narrow in scope, only tracked a few hundred residents from a few of the latter demolitions, and they only tracked them a very short-time... in most case it was the first place they moved.

It didn't analyze most people and it didn't analyze, whether section 8 vouchers would help people move around more over time. To an extent... it makes sense the first place people move is somewhere they are familiar with, but over time in the face of finding opportunity that might not be the case.

Now I can't really use data to show the opposite either.... it wasn't collected enough, but it is apparent many poorer residents of Atlanta have moved out of the city from basic trends in the census data... whether or not the were residents of the projects or not.

It is also obvious that section 8 vouchers played a role in some of the shifts. Section 8 itself is a type of system to replace public housing.