ATLANTA — The idea is to use eminent domain to take over blighted complexes and allow the city to redevelop them.
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The problems are hard to miss. Ripped walls and dilapidated properties, an eyesore where there should be a haven.
“All over the city, they have just gone by the wayside,” Magnolia Park resident Ruby Dodd said.
Dodd lives in Magnolia Park and has seen problems ranging from holes in roofs, trash to dealing with broken air conditioning for years.
“It’s a lot of stuff that they just haven’t paid any attention to,” Dodd told Channel 2’s Michael Doudna.
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However, Bryon Amos of Atlanta City Council District 3 hopes two new pieces of legislation will change that by using eminent domain.
“A lot of them are unhealthy. A lot of them are unsafe,” Amos said. “They looked like they were right for the time for us to make a statement that all of this insanity stops now.”
The resolutions would allow the city to use eminent domain on properties that have remained in a “substantial state of blight” for years, allowing the city to take over the properties and redevelop them into affordable housing.
One of the resolutions specifically singles out Magnolia Park and Azalea Gardens.
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”But also say to our multifamily property owners that here we come, we’re here and we’re paying attention to the product you’re delivering to our residents," Amos said.
The hope is to tackle two birds with one stone and to improve access to affordable housing while removing blight from the city.
“Oh, you know, I think that’s what a government or city government, a county government, that’s what they should do,” Dodd said.
Now, going through the eminent domain process would take time.
Dodd says her air conditioning was recently fixed, and residents at Azalea Gardens say they are planning on demolishing this property shortly and building new affordable housing.