According to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Affordable Workforce Housing Implementation Task Force, over 75% of City of Atlanta employees do not live inside the city limits.  Working families in metro Atlanta spend nearly two-thirds of their income on housing and transportation combined.  The Atlanta Terwilliger Center Steering Committee has a number of initiatives and projects underway to address the critical need for more workforce housing units throughout the region.  
 
Inclusionary Zoning
A set of recommendations for enhancing the City of Atlanta’s proposed voluntary inclusionary zoning ordinance has been developed.  Primarily, the recommendations call for a broadening of the incentive package available to developers under the current ordinance. In addition to density bonuses, potential developer benefits could include incentives related to parking requirements, setback requirements, and fee waivers.
 
Employer Assisted Housing
The Terwilliger Center has been engaged with the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc. (ANDP) and Livable Communities Coalition (LCC) in an effort to develop an employer-assisted housing demonstration project with Emory University.  Under this proposal, Emory would provide down-payment assistance to qualifying employee families in return for those individuals agreeing to use other modes of transportation besides the automobile in commuting to work.  
 
Regional Workforce Housing Market Study
The Center has engaged a consultant, Ken Bleakly and Associates, to carry out a study on the current market for workforce housing in light of the significantly changed housing and real estate economy.  This study, which will draw together much of the relevant work that has been prepared in other reports and studies in recent years, will examine the dimensions of the workforce housing needs, the existing inventory of workforce housing projects, and the current financial issues that developers face in creating workforce housing in the Atlanta region.

In the current environment, the preservation of workforce housing is just as important as creating new units.  In this regard, the Terwilliger Center has been involved in two local efforts aimed at housing preservation. First, in March, the Center was a co-sponsor with the Cousins Family Foundation at a forum that analyzed the mortgage foreclosure crisis in Atlanta and how the crisis can be addressed.  Representatives of non-profits, financial institutions, housing developers, and philanthropic institutions participated. From this effort, the Terwilliger Center has been working with partners to determine how local programs can be developed to identify, acquire and rehabilitate foreclosed properties.  
 
Second, the Center is part of a team of organizations identified in a proposal submitted by the City of Atlanta and the Beltline to the McArthur Foundation in Chicago to develop a rental housing preservation initiative for the City.  This proposal, which is part of a national competition, would allow the City and Beltline to substantially expand its efforts in preserving good quality rental housing for affordable workforce purposes.  The Terwilliger Center envisions participating by facilitating the involvement of private, for-profit developers in this effort.