Two Atlanta City Council committees last week advanced legislation to rein in how the city spends its Affordable Housing Trust Fund. It was prompted by an Atlanta Civic Circle investigation that found the mayor’s office was using most of the annual funding to cover housing bond debt and staff salaries — not building housing for lower-income Atlantans.
Both the city council’s Community Development and Human Services Committee and its Finance and Executive Committee unanimously approved the legislation early last week, sending it to the full council for a vote on Nov. 17. It requires that at least half of the housing fund — allocated $19.5 million for fiscal year 2026 — must be spent to develop affordable housing. Up to 30% could be spent to fund nonprofits’ housing programs, while only 15% could be spent on debt service for municipal housing bonds and 5% on staff salaries and administrative costs.
Because the legislation would amend the city’s charter, where the trust fund is codified, the council must vote on it twice.
The ACC investigation in May showed that of the $17 million the trust received from the general fund in FY 2025, at least $8.8 million went to housing-related bond debt and at least $4 million covered city salaries — more than 75% of the total.
Housing advocates have called that a misappropriation of funds. City Councilmember Matt Westmoreland, who wrote the 2021 bill that created the fund, told Atlanta Civic Circle in October that the primary aim was to bankroll affordable housing projects and support housing nonprofits. He’s pitching the fix under consideration by the city council.
But Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration is urging caution, warning that the new legislation could hamper the city’s ability to issue new housing bonds and pay staff who run its housing programs.
Chief Financial Officer Mohamed Balla argues the current setup — using trust fund dollars largely for debt service and payroll — maximizes the city’s capacity to finance new housing.
“For every $7 million in debt we service, we can issue $100 million in Housing or Homeless Opportunity Bonds,” Balla said, adding that transferring those costs back to the general fund could force tradeoffs with other city services, like the police or fire departments.
It was only last February that the city began using the housing trust, instead of the general fund, to pay down bond debt. Moving those costs into the trust, Balla said, has allowed Atlanta to expand its bonding capacity.
Since FY 2024, the city has incurred $150 million in bond debt for housing initiatives. It approved a $100 million issue of Housing Opportunity Program bonds in FY 2024 for five city housing initiatives and then a $50 million Homeless Opportunity Project bond issue in FY 2025 to build 500 rapid rehousing units and 200 permanent supportive housing units.
The city has issued both those housing bonds since the trust was established in January 2022. Months before that it issued $50 million in Housing Opportunity Program bonds, with the option to increase the issuance by another $50 million. It was the additional funding from the trust that allowed the city to push the $50 million FY 2021 Housing Opportunity Program bond issue up to $100 million in FY 2024, Balla said.
Before that, the city’s only bond issues to build housing for Atlantans were for $40 million in 2017 and $35 million in 2007. “We would not have been able to expand [bond issuances] without the Affordable Housing Trust Fund,” Balla said.
Westmoreland sees things differently. “My North Star is the construction of housing, especially at 50% of the area median income (AMI) and below,” he said in an October interview. “The general fund is an appropriate place to fund the salaries of people who are focused on this work.”
With the first full council vote slated for Monday, Westmoreland’s legislation is on track for potential adoption on Dec. 1.
But Westmoreland said he’s considering adjusting the spending caps on bond payments and salaries from the trust fund. He said he’s in ongoing talks with the mayor’s office about Balla’s concerns. “We’re talking through it on a daily basis and figuring out where everybody’s pressure and pain points are,” he said. “So we’ll keep grinding away.”
What else would you expect from Dickens?
Can we get an update on this? It went back to committee and the Mayor’s office pushed back on the debt financing cap and increasing the Admin cap