Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership
As gentrification sweeps through the neighborhoods of metro Atlanta, low-to-moderate income housing developments often find themselves at risk of demolition, leaving the residents of these neighborhoods displaced without accessible and affordable housing options. While gentrification is usually a direct result of disinvested communities, one Atlanta non-profit found themselves at the middle of a solution for the ‘neglected few.’ Meet the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, an organization whose focus remains on protecting local metro Atlanta mixed-income communities.
The Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) was formed in 1991 as a result of the merger between the Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s Housing Resource Center and the Atlanta Economic Neighborhood Development Corporation’s Neighborhood Development Department. ANDP saw the gentrification in their local neighborhoods as an opportunity to preserve the communities and families that were core parts of Atlanta’s history and culture while reclaiming and revitalizing declining Atlanta neighborhoods. “Nothing changes a family’s financial trajectory and creates opportunity like home ownership,” said John O’Callaghan, president and CEO of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership. “Stable home ownership provides resources for retirement, creating a small business, sending a child to college, and more.”
With a mission “to promote, create and preserve mixed-income communities through direct development, lending, policy research, and advocacy,” ANDP set out to create an equitable distribution of affordable housing across metro Atlanta. The organization decided to shift its focus in 2007 to acquiring and revitalizing single-family homes impacted by the Atlanta foreclosure crisis. As of 2020, ANDP has restored over 425 single-family homes and preserved 88 units of affordable housing rentals.
As the organization continued scaling, they found themselves in need of capital to continue addressing the affordable housing issue in Atlanta. Beginning early 2019, ANDP started their partnership with Atlantic Capital, who was able to provide funding used as rotating, working capital to support ANDP’s acquisition and rehab needs to greater scale the organization, better meeting the housing needs of its communities.
“We are very appreciative of the investment of resources and time from our partners at Atlantic Capital,” says O’Callaghan. “Their support of our single-family home development program has been invaluable. With their innovative investment in our enterprise-level fund, we are able to save on debt costs, which we can ultimately pass on to our home buyers.”
“Growing up in Atlanta, it troubles me to see the affordable housing crisis that has been ongoing for as far as I can remember,” says Ali Lemma, Atlantic Capital Relationship Manager for ANDP. “When we were presented the opportunity to partner with ANDP and offer rotating working capital to fulfill their mission, the feeling was more gratifying than ever to know that the capital we were deploying had a direct impact on fixing one of the major problems in our immediate community. Working with organizations like ANDP gives me purpose in serving my role at Atlantic Capital.”
Throughout their history, ANDP has supported the creation of more than 11,000 housing units for people of low-to-moderate incomes, providing affordable housing options for more than 28,000 Atlanta residents. Atlantic Capital is proud to be a part of their impact in preserving local Atlanta communities.
Click the links below to find out more about ANDP’s initiatives.
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