Westside Future Fund is proud to celebrate Jailyn Gotel as one of our newest homeowners through the Home on the Westside program.

Jailyn is a Fulton County school teacher who knows the Westside isn’t just a neighborhood—it’s where she grew up. Raised in English Avenue by her mother and grandmother, Jailyn’s roots in this community run deep, and her family still calls the Westside home today.

In February, Jailyn took a landmark step in her family’s story by closing on her home in the same neighborhood she grew up in — becoming the first homeowner in her family. With support from Westside Future Fund’s down payment assistance program, along with Atlanta Housing and Invest Atlanta, Jailyn turned a generational dream into reality.

Every day, Jailyn invests in the next generation through her work in the classroom. Now, she’s investing in her own future and her family’s legacy right here on the Westside, in the same community that raised her.

Congratulations, Jailyn, and welcome home!

If you’re interested in finding your own pathway to homeownership, you can learn more here.

Across Atlanta’s Historic Westside, the story of community has always been shaped by women — leaders, caregivers, educators, and entrepreneurs whose influence extends far beyond any single space.

But just as important as the people are the places.

From historic institutions to neighborhood hubs and small businesses, spaces designed to support women and girls have long served as anchors of stability, opportunity, and connection. During Women’s History Month, we recognize not only the women who lead and inspire, but the environments that have helped make that leadership possible.

Because when women have access to supportive spaces, entire communities thrive.

A Legacy Rooted in Place

For generations, Atlanta’s Historic Westside has been shaped by women who not only led within their communities, but helped build the very spaces that sustained them.

Long before modern redevelopment efforts, women across the Westside were organizing around housing, health, education, and civil rights — often creating place-based solutions that responded directly to the needs of their neighbors.

One of the earliest examples of this work can be seen in the Atlanta Neighborhood Union, a pioneering, women-led initiative founded in 1908 by Lugenia Burns Hope. Based out of Morehouse College in the historic Westside, the organization served Black neighborhoods across Atlanta with a focus on aiding underprivileged families, and improving health outcomes and quality of life by meeting residents where they were — bringing care, resources, and education directly into the community. Through efforts like personal care classes, a health clinic, and family support programs, it stands as an early model of what community-informed, place-based investment can look like when women lead.

That same spirit of leadership and place-based impact is reflected in the legacy of Coretta Scott King. Following Dr. King’s assassination, Mrs. King founded The King Center — and in its earliest days, she managed the organization from the basement of her home in Vine City, bringing its work directly into the community. From those beginnings, the Center grew into a global institution dedicated to preserving the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and advancing nonviolent social change. Her work is a powerful reminder that spaces rooted in community can grow to shape movements far beyond their geographic boundaries.

​​That tradition of women-led, place-based organizing is powerfully embodied in the story of Dorothy Bolden. Born in 1924 and raised in Vine City, Bolden began working as a domestic worker at the age of nine and spent decades witnessing the long hours, low wages, and poor treatment Black domestic workers endured across Atlanta. She recognized that the city buses these women rode to and from work each day were already spaces of shared experience — and in 1968, she transformed those everyday commutes into a movement, founding the National Domestic Workers Union of America and organizing more than 13,000 women across ten cities. Under her leadership, domestic workers won meaningful wage increases, gained access to Social Security and workers’ compensation, and were required to register to vote — connecting labor rights to civic power. Her work earned advisory roles with three U.S. presidents, but it all began on the Westside, rooted in the lived experience of women in her own community.

During the Civil Rights Movement, neighborhoods like Vine City served as important centers of organizing, where homes, churches, and community spaces became sites of strategy, resilience, and collective action — often led and sustained by women behind the scenes.

Enduring Institutions, Lasting Impact

Education has long been another cornerstone of women-centered spaces on the Westside. At Spelman College, one of the nation’s leading historically Black colleges for women, students are empowered to become leaders across every field — from public service to the arts. Spelman is part of the Atlanta University Center Consortium — the largest consortium of historically Black colleges and universities in the nation — where institutions like Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University collectively shape generations of leaders. Together, these campuses have anchored the Westside as a center of Black education, culture, and civic leadership for more than a century.

Nearby, the Phillis Wheatley YWCA has long served as a cornerstone for women and families. Historically, YWCAs like the Phillis Wheatley branch played a critical role in providing safe housing and resources for Black women during periods of segregation, when access to such spaces was severely limited. Through housing, wellness programs, and community services, the YWCA continues a legacy of creating space for women to stabilize, grow, and lead.

And at Ebenezer Baptist Church, women’s ministries have played a vital role in strengthening both spiritual life and community connection, offering support networks that extend far beyond Sunday services. Across the Westside, churches like Ebenezer have long relied on women not only as participants, but as organizers, caregivers, and community builders — sustaining networks of support that extend into housing, education, and neighborhood life.

Beyond formal institutions, women across the Westside have long created informal networks of care — supporting neighbors, raising families, and sustaining community life in ways that often go unrecognized, but are essential to neighborhood stability.

These spaces are more than buildings. They are ecosystems of support — places where women gather, learn, lead, and invest back into their neighborhoods. Together, they reflect a long tradition of women on the Westside shaping not only community life, but the physical and institutional spaces that make that life possible.

Why These Spaces Matter

Access to spaces designed with women in mind isn’t just a matter of equity, it’s a driver of community stability.

When women have access to:

• Safe and stable housing
• Educational and workforce opportunities
• Health and wellness resources
• Community and support networks

They are better positioned to build lasting roots—and to uplift those around them.

On the Westside, this is not theoretical. It’s visible.

It shows up in stronger families, more connected neighborhoods, and a growing sense of shared investment in the future. Restoration on the historic Westside is not just physical development, but the intentional creation and preservation of spaces where people — especially women — can continue to belong and thrive.

Building Forward: A Community That Supports Women

At Westside Future Fund, we believe that strong neighborhoods are built through intentional investment — not only in housing, but in the people and spaces that make community possible.

That includes:

• Partnering with organizations that serve women and families
• Supporting developments that prioritize stability and accessibility
• Investing in community infrastructure that fosters connection and opportunity

As we continue this work, the lesson is clear: When women have the support they need — through education, housing, community, and opportunity — entire neighborhoods are stronger for it.

When Women Thrive, Neighborhoods Strengthen

This Women’s History Month, we celebrate the spaces that have made that impact possible — and the women who continue to shape the Westside every day.

Because the future of these neighborhoods isn’t built by buildings alone.

It’s built by people.
And when women thrive, communities do too.

Across Atlanta’s Historic Westside, restoration is underway. New homes are being built, longtime residents are gaining new pathways to remain in the communities they love, and neighborhood spaces are being reimagined for the future.

But behind these visible changes is more than a vision. It is a system for implementation — one designed to ensure growth happens thoughtfully and in alignment with community priorities: the Westside Land Use Framework Plan.

Adopted by the City of Atlanta in 2017, the Westside Land Use Framework serves as a roadmap for how neighborhoods including Vine City, English Avenue, Ashview Heights, and the Atlanta University Center can grow and thrive in the years ahead. Developed through extensive community listening and engagement, the plan brings together decades of planning efforts and resident input into a shared path forward.

To this day, for Westside Future Fund and our partners, the framework continues to help shape how restoration is carried out, ensuring that investment strengthens neighborhoods while honoring the people and history that define them.

A Community-Driven Vision for the Westside

Atlanta’s Historic Westside has played a defining role in the city’s history. The neighborhoods surrounding the Atlanta University Center were once home to many of Atlanta’s Black professionals, civil rights leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs. Institutions like Morehouse College, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and Morris Brown College have shaped generations of leaders whose impact extends far beyond the city.

Yet like many historic urban neighborhoods across the country, the Westside also experienced decades of disinvestment. Population loss, vacant homes, aging infrastructure, and limited access to services created significant challenges for residents and community institutions alike.

The Westside Land Use Framework Plan was created to address these challenges while protecting the unique character and culture of these neighborhoods. Over the course of the planning process, residents, community leaders, nonprofits, and public agencies worked together to identify priorities for the future of their neighborhoods.

The result was a plan rooted in a simple but powerful idea: restoration should strengthen the community, not displace it — and that principle should be reflected not just in intention, but in how development is carried out.

From Vision to Action: How the Framework Works

What sets the Westside Land Use Framework apart is that it is not just a set of ideas, it is embedded in how development happens.

The framework informed updates to zoning and design standards across the Westside, helping establish clear expectations for building scale, form, and neighborhood character. These standards guide what can be built and, just as importantly, how it fits within the existing community.

At the same time, the framework reinforces the role of Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs), ensuring that residents remain central to decision-making. In practice, this means that while development standards are clearly defined, any significant deviations require community awareness and input — placing an important level of accountability in the hands of the people who call these neighborhoods home.

Together, these elements create a principles-based approach to growth, one that aligns investment with community priorities and helps ensure that restoration is both intentional and equitable.

Four Priorities for a Stronger Westside

The framework outlines a set of goals designed to guide how development and investment should occur across the Westside.

Strengthening neighborhood assets.

The plan emphasizes supporting existing residents and stabilizing neighborhoods. This includes encouraging homeownership, expanding housing options, and creating opportunities for residents of different income levels to live in the community.

Preserving neighborhood identity.

The Westside’s historic architecture, cultural institutions, and faith communities are central to its character. The framework calls for protecting historic structures and ensuring that new development fits the scale and design of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Investing in infrastructure and connectivity.

Improving transportation, streetscapes, and stormwater infrastructure helps make neighborhoods safer, more accessible, and better connected to the rest of the city.

Expanding access to parks and open space.

Green space plays an important role in quality of life. The framework encourages the creation of neighborhood parks, gardens, and recreational spaces that bring residents together.

Together, these priorities form a blueprint for how restoration can happen in a way that benefits both current residents and future generations.

How the Framework Guides Our Work

Westside Future Fund helped support the development of the Land Use Framework and continues to use it as a guiding reference for our work across the Historic Westside.

Many of the initiatives we lead or support align directly with the framework’s priorities and are shaped by the systems it helped put in place.

Housing initiatives like our Home on the Westside program expand access to quality housing options for people with a live, work, or learn connection to the community. Programs that support affordable rental housing, homeownership, and financial services help ensure that longtime residents can remain in their neighborhoods as investment returns.

The framework also informs where and how development occurs. By identifying key corridors, residential areas, and opportunities for mixed-use growth — and reinforcing standards for how that development takes shape — it helps guide responsible investment that complements the character of existing neighborhoods.

At the same time, the plan emphasizes protecting legacy residents through strategies that reduce displacement pressures. Efforts such as the Anti-Displacement Tax Fund, which helps longtime homeowners manage rising property taxes, reflect this commitment to long-term stability.

Beyond housing, the framework’s broader vision for neighborhood vitality aligns with our holistic focus on community health, education, safety, and economic opportunity—all essential ingredients for thriving neighborhoods.

Building the Future Together

Restoration is not a single project or moment in time. It is an ongoing process that requires collaboration between our neighbors, community organizations, nonprofits, government agencies, and private partners.

The Westside Land Use Framework Plan helps ensure that this work moves forward with a shared understanding of what the community wants its future to look like — and with the tools to carry that vision forward in practice.

By grounding development in community priorities, embedding those priorities into how decisions are made, protecting historic character, and supporting longtime residents, the framework provides a foundation for growth that strengthens the Westside while honoring its legacy.

As Westside Future Fund and our partners continue to invest in housing, public spaces, and community programs, the framework remains a guidepost and a system helping ensure that restoration reflects the voices, values, and aspirations of the people of the Westside. 

At this month’s Transform Westside Summit, neighbors, partners, and community leaders gathered once again to connect, reflect, and move forward together in the work of restoring Atlanta’s Historic Westside.

The morning opened with a warm welcome from WFF President & CEO John Ahmann, followed by a powerful devotion from Ebony Charley, Founder and Owner of Trinity Financial Management Solutions, and time for fellowship — an important reminder that the strength of this work begins with relationships. The Summit then moved into a focused conversation on public safety with Major Karla Baldini, Zone 1 Commander for the Atlanta Police Department, highlighting how collaboration continues to shape safer, more stable neighborhoods across the Westside.

A Community Rooted in Purpose

This month’s devotion was led by Ebony Charley, a soon-to-be Home on the Westside homeowner. Her story reflects the very heart of the Westside — deeply rooted in faith, commitment, and a personal call to reinvest in community.

Drawing from the story of Nehemiah, Charley connected the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls to the ongoing restoration happening across the Westside today. In doing so, she reframed the Summit itself as part of that work:

“I believe if Nehemiah lived today and he were to gather with his brother and others, it would look and sound much like a Westside Summit meeting.”

Her message underscored a central truth: that restoration is not the work of any one person or organization, but of an entire community — each individual contributing in their own way.

Charley also shared her own journey toward homeownership, made possible through the Home on the Westside program. Her experience reflects the program’s broader mission: ensuring that longtime residents and new homeowners alike have the opportunity to put down roots and thrive.

Following the devotion, John Ahmann expanded on the core pathways of Home on the Westside — homes for sale, homes for rent, and the Anti-Displacement Tax Fund — each designed to support community stability while honoring the history of the neighborhoods. Together, these efforts form a system that prioritizes legacy residents and creates pathways for long-term belonging.

Advancing Safety Through Partnership

The Summit’s featured presentation focused on one of Westside Future Fund’s four original impact areas: safety and security.

John Ahmann reflected on the early days of WFF’s work, when public safety challenges —  particularly in neighborhoods like English Avenue and Vine City — were among the most urgent issues facing the community. Over the past decade, sustained collaboration with the Atlanta Police Department and the Atlanta Police Foundation has helped drive meaningful progress, including the presence of more than 25 officers now living within historic Westside neighborhoods.

This month’s featured speaker, Major Karla Baldini, Zone 1 Commander for the Atlanta Police Department, brought both experience and perspective to the conversation. Having served with APD since 2005, she emphasized the importance of relationship-building and long-term commitment to the communities she serves.

“I keep coming back here,” she remarked. “It’s like a magnet… I love the ability to see the actual transformation take place and develop these relationships with [the WFF] team and the community.”

Major Baldini provided an overview of current public safety trends, noting that while crime across the city has decreased overall, Zone 1 experienced an increase in 2025 — particularly in aggravated assaults and robberies. In response, her team is focused on targeted strategies to reduce violent crime while continuing to address the everyday concerns that impact residents’ quality of life.

“Things that affect people’s daily lives might not affect overall crime numbers. I have to have a balanced approach to targeting violent crime and quality of life issues.”

Addressing Root Causes, Together

A key theme throughout the conversation was the importance of addressing the underlying factors that contribute to instability — from blighted properties to housing insecurity to mental health challenges.

Major Baldini emphasized that long-term change requires more than traditional enforcement alone: “From APD’s standpoint, and just from a human standpoint, there’s no way that we can arrest ourselves out of these long-term deep root cause issues.”

Instead, she highlighted the role of alternative pathways, including diversion programs, outreach partnerships, and community-based resources that help connect individuals to support rather than defaulting to arrest.

The Role of Community in Building Safer Neighborhoods

Throughout the discussion, one message remained clear: lasting safety is built through partnership.

Major Baldini pointed to the critical role that residents, organizations, and local stakeholders play in supporting public safety efforts — from maintaining open lines of communication to working together on shared challenges like blighted properties and neighborhood stability.

She also emphasized the importance of trust and accessibility, encouraging community members to engage directly with officers living in their neighborhoods: “The presence is strong and the presence is important for a couple reasons. One, it provides safety, just a visible deterrent. But two, they’re engaged in the community.”

This presence — both visible and relational — continues to be a cornerstone of progress across the Westside. 

Major Baldini addressed a range of questions from audience members on topics including night patrols, APD’s response to ICE, the support zone 1 receives from other APD teams, potential understaffing issues, and what to expect when the World Cup comes.

As the Summit concluded, John Ahmann extended gratitude to both Major Baldini for her leadership and partnership, and to Ebony Charley for grounding the morning in purpose and perspective.

Together, their messages captured the essence of the work ahead: that restoring the Westside is not simply about rebuilding structures, but about strengthening the systems, relationships, and shared commitments that make communities whole.

Missed the event? Watch the full March Transform Westside Summit on YouTube.

Before urban planners coined terms like ecosystem, mixed-use, or placemaking, Atlanta’s historic Westside was already living those ideas.

Homes, schools, businesses, shared spaces, and intergenerational leadership were not abstract concepts here. They were the lived infrastructure of thriving Black communities whose roots stretch back to the founding of the Atlanta University Center institutions in the 1860s.

Across Vine City, English Avenue, Ashview Heights, and the Atlanta University Center, life was always interconnected.

This Black History Month, we reflect on what makes a neighborhood whole: stability, opportunity, education, and connection — and on the history that proves these were never just aspirations. They were deliberately built.

Live — Stability as the First Act of Freedom

For generations, establishing a home on the Westside was itself an assertion of freedom.

After the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917 displaced thousands of residents, many Black families moved west into Vine City, bringing with them the entrepreneurial spirit that had defined Sweet Auburn. By the 1920s, Vine City had become one of the most prestigious Black neighborhoods in Atlanta.

In Ashview Heights, businessman Herman Perry created one of the nation’s first planned Black middle-class communities, extending mortgages when they were nearly impossible for Black families to obtain and deeding land for Booker T. Washington High School. Within a decade, the school built for 2,000 students was serving nearly 6,000 — a testament to the community’s growth and determination.

But stability proved fragile. Decades of disinvestment fractured neighborhood fabric. Public housing developments deteriorated. Vacancies rose. Blight spread. Systemic lending discrimination persisted.

Protecting housing stability today is not only about affordability. It is about preserving Black history as something lived — embodied in families and neighborhoods that built it.

Work — Black Enterprise as Community Infrastructure

On the Westside, small business was never just commerce. It was community infrastructure.

Alonzo Herndon, born into slavery in 1858, built a barbering empire before founding the Atlanta Life Insurance Company in 1905. His Vine City mansion — designed by his wife and built by Black craftsmen — symbolized the wealth and vision circulating within the community.

But enterprise extended far beyond one man. Pascal’s La Carousel and the Busy Bee Café became gathering places for civil rights leaders and strategists. Maynard Jackson Jr. mapped his historic mayoral campaign at Pascal’s. These spaces fed both bodies and movements.

Along what is now Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, attorney Donald Hollowell led the desegregation of the University of Georgia, represented Martin Luther King Jr., and later became the first Black regional director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. His career reflected the corridor’s deeper identity: a place where economic and civil rights struggles intertwined.

Dorothy Bolden, born in Vine City, organized domestic workers by riding every MARTA bus line in Atlanta, founding the National Domestic Workers Union of America in 1968. Within two years, workers saw significant wage increases and gained access to benefits long denied to them.

Economic justice on the historic Westside has always been built from the ground up.

Learn — Education Inside and Outside the Classroom

Education on the historic Westside is rooted in emancipation itself.

Atlanta University was founded in 1865, becoming the first institution in the nation to award graduate degrees to African Americans. Morehouse College, Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University), and Spelman College soon followed. Together, these institutions formed the Atlanta University Center — now the world’s largest consortium of historically Black private colleges and universities.

These schools were not separate from the neighborhood. They were its intellectual center of gravity.

Beyond the AUC, Booker T. Washington High School and the English Avenue School anchored their communities. The English Avenue School, bombed in 1960 amid desegregation resistance, continued to serve families for decades and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. Booker T. Washington High School shaped dozens of prominent city and national icons, including Dr. King. 

Leaders such as Dr. Asa G. Yancey, the first African American doctor at both Grady and Emory, and Grace Towns Hamilton, the first African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly, were shaped not only by classrooms, but by the neighborhoods that surrounded them.

Learning here has always extended beyond school walls.

Connection — How Community Makes Leadership Possible

Leadership does not grow in isolation. It grows in connection.

Reverend Joseph E. Boone — pastor, organizer, and strategist — opened Rush Memorial Congregational Church to the Atlanta University Center student movement, providing a headquarters for civil rights organizing when students were forced off campus. Known as “the picketing preacher,” Boone later led Operation Breadbasket’s economic justice campaigns, securing hiring and contracting commitments from major corporations.

Helen Howard demonstrated another form of leadership in 1967 when she founded the Vine City Foundation to provide medical, legal, and food resources during a period of neighborhood decline.

These leaders were not anomalies. They were products of an ecosystem — of homes, businesses, schools, churches, and shared spaces that nurtured trust and collective action.

Neighborhood Wholeness Is Living History

Black history on the historic Westside is not confined to archives. It is etched into the streets — Hollowell Parkway, Boone Boulevard, Cameron M. Alexander Boulevard, and many others — and into the institutions and homes that shaped generations.

It is the story of deliberate construction: neighborhoods built by visionaries like Herman Perry and Alonzo Herndon; institutions founded in the wake of slavery; leaders who used law, labor, ministry, and organizing to expand opportunity.

It is also a reminder that when housing stability, economic opportunity, education, and connection are disrupted, the ecosystem weakens.

Preserving that ecosystem — homes that anchor legacy, businesses that build dignity, schools that cultivate leadership, and relationships that sustain community — is what makes a neighborhood whole.

And that is what we honor this Black History Month.

On Atlanta’s historic Westside, home has always meant more than an address.

It means grandparents down the street. Church on Sunday. Kids walking to school with friends they’ve known since kindergarten. Neighbors who check in.

As the Westside grows and new development reshapes the skyline, housing costs have risen — and many longtime residents are facing a difficult question: Can I afford to stay in the community that shaped me?

Home on the Westside (HOTW) was created to answer that question with clarity and commitment. HOTW, Westside Future Fund’s signature housing program, is designed to support residents at every stage of their housing journey.

It exists to ensure that the people who live, work, and learn in the historic Westside have the opportunity to remain here — in high-quality homes, at affordable prices, with long-term stability. The goal is simple: to restore the historic Westside without displacing the people, vibrancy, and cultural richness that make the community feel like home.

Who Is Home on the Westside For?

Home on the Westside is for people who have a connection to the historic Westside, defined as those with live, work, or learn connections to the community. Whether you currently live in or have family connections to a historic Westside neighborhood, work in the area or have a formal job offer, or are a student, faculty, staff or alumni from a Washington Cluster or Atlanta University Center school, we’re here to help you find your home.

The program is designed for renters seeking stability, families preparing for homeownership, and longtime homeowners navigating rising property taxes — wherever you are in your journey, there is a pathway forward. 

What Does Home on the Westside Offer?

Affordable Rental Homes — Built for Stability

Home on the Westside rental homes are not simply “lower cost.” They are high-quality, deeply affordable homes designed for long-term stability. In many neighborhoods, residents are often forced to choose between affordability and quality — aging housing stock with deferred maintenance, or newer units priced out of reach.

Home on the Westside closes that gap.

With a Home on the Westside rental, residents gain:

• Modern, high-quality housing
• Professionally managed properties
• Long-term affordability protections
• Rent stability not tied to market speculation or short-term incentives

This stability means families can plan, save, and grow.

Single-Family Homes for Purchase

For residents ready to own, Home on the Westside offers opportunities to purchase high-quality single-family homes in the community.

These homes provide:

• A chance to build generational wealth
• A stake in the neighborhood’s future
• Long-term affordability commitments that preserve community access

Homeownership strengthens not just individual families, but the neighborhood as a whole.

Financial Support and A Pathway from Renting to Owning

For many families, homeownership feels out of reach — but it doesn’t have to be.

Through financial education, coaching, and down payment assistance, Home on the Westside creates a pathway for renters to prepare for and transition into ownership when they are ready.

Housing is not just about where you live today — it’s about what becomes possible tomorrow.

Support for Longtime Homeowners

As property values increase, so can property taxes.

For longtime homeowners — especially seniors and legacy residents — rising taxes can threaten housing stability even when the mortgage is paid off.

Home on the Westside offers property tax relief support and guidance to help longtime homeowners remain in the homes they’ve worked hard to keep.

Why Home on the Westside?

Stable housing is foundational to everything else. It positively impacts:

• Health and Wellness: reducing stress and housing insecurity
• Cradle-to-Career Education: allowing children to stay in the schools they know and love
• Safety and Security: strengthening community ties and neighborhood continuity
• Economic Mobility: enabling savings, workforce stability, and generational wealth-building

When families can remain rooted, communities thrive.

Home on the Westside is about preserving not just buildings — but relationships, history, and legacy. It reflects a belief that growth should strengthen a community, not displace it.

Home on the Westside is about keeping the Westside a place where people who built the community can continue to live, grow, and thrive.

How to Learn More

Housing opportunities through Home on the Westside become available on an ongoing basis.

If you’re interested, we encourage you to learn more, and see our newest housing opportunities by visiting yourhotw.com where you can submit an interest form to stay informed and connect with our team.

Whether you’re seeking your next rental, preparing for homeownership, or looking for support to remain in your longtime home — we’re here to help you stay rooted on the Westside.

Last month, on a cold January morning on the historic Westside, neighbors, partners and city leaders gathered to celebrate 57 new, deeply affordable homes on blocks that had sat vacant for decades. For longtime residents of English Avenue and Vine City, the opening of 646 Echo Street and 839 Boone Boulevard was less a ribbon-cutting than a promise kept.

It was also proof of a model that works — and a glimpse of what becomes possible when public investment and private capital move in the same direction.

Atlanta has done this before. The Atlantic Station TAD turned a blighted brownfield into a thriving mixed-use district with thousands of residents, new jobs and a stronger tax base. The BeltLine TAD has leveraged billions in private development while advancing affordable housing, small business growth and walkable connectivity across the city. These are real success stories that demonstrate what targeted public investment can unlock.

The Westside TAD carries that same potential — with a critical distinction. Under its structure, 100 percent of the tax increment generated in English Avenue and Vine City stays in those neighborhoods, and those same communities receive 20 percent of the eastside allocation. The design ensures that the residents generating the growth are the ones who benefit from it.

For over a decade, Westside Future Fund has worked to deliver on that design. Guided by a Westside Land Use Framework Plan developed with more than 1,000 residents and unanimously adopted by City Council in 2017, WFF has pursued what we call “restoration without displacement” — a model that braids public tools with private and philanthropic capital to rebuild neighborhoods around the people already in them, not in place of them.

The results speak for themselves: a 50 percent reduction in blight since 2017, more than 270 affordable rental units completed or underway, 73 single-family homes sold or in progress, and over $130 million invested in real estate across the historic Westside. WFF has provided more than $1.9 million in down payment assistance, $1.4 million in rental assistance, and over $600,000 in anti-displacement tax relief to legacy residents. Our work extends beyond housing into education, community health and public safety — because true neighborhood restoration is about more than buildings.

What makes the Westside TAD distinctive is the multiplier effect. Through the WFF Impact Fund — capitalized by many of Atlanta’s largest corporations — and the Home on the Westside initiative, every public dollar invested in these neighborhoods attracts significant private and philanthropic capital. Mission-driven investors are ready to follow public leadership with the kind of patient, community-aligned capital that builds permanently affordable housing and long-term neighborhood stability.

The scale of that opportunity is substantial. With continued growth in the taxable digest, the Westside TAD could generate an estimated $273 million over the next decade. That public investment, leveraged through WFF’s model, could support thousands of new housing units and catalyze hundreds of millions more in private capital — all directed by the community-driven framework that has guided this work from the beginning.

This is not a speculative vision. The infrastructure is in place: a resident-approved plan, a proven fund management platform, a coalition of corporate and philanthropic partners, and a decade of measurable outcomes. What the Westside needs now is sustained public commitment to match the private investment that has already arrived.

The neighbors who gathered on Echo Street in January were not celebrating a single project. They were celebrating evidence that Atlanta can grow without leaving people behind — that restoration and belonging are not in tension with investment and progress. If we continue to put the Westside TAD to work in this way, the Westside will not just be a better neighborhood. It will be a model for how cities build forward together.

For generations, Atlanta’s historic Westside neighborhoods have been places of resilience, leadership, and community — shaped by the people who have long called them home.

As reinvestment continues across the Westside, Westside Future Fund remains focused on a guiding principle: growth should strengthen existing communities, not displace them. That commitment extends beyond housing affordability. It includes how places are designed, how neighborhoods evolve, and how new development fits into long-standing community fabric.

Architecture can either accelerate disruption — or help preserve continuity.

Kronberg Urbanists + Architects (KUA), a multidisciplinary design studio working at the intersection of architecture, urban design, policy, and development, agrees. Olivia Pontiff and Hannah Bannister, project leads on the KUA team, worked closely together with the WFF team to deliver the vision of restoration without displacement.

“We love the phrase ‘restoration without displacement,’ because it gets at the heart of why we do this work,” the KUA team shared. “At KUA, we talk about attainability as a holistic idea — one that includes affordability, accessibility, and real economic opportunity. For us, that’s not just a framework; it’s a responsibility.”

For KUA, that responsibility is deeply personal. Atlanta is home base for their team, and English Avenue represents one of their most meaningful long-term partnerships.

“Neighborhoods like English Avenue are special not because of buildings, but because of the people who have built and sustained those communities over generations,” they noted. “Whenever we’re on site and neighbors are passing by, we often stop to talk about the neighborhood and its history. Those conversations ground our work and remind us who we’re really designing for.”

Designing With, Not Just For

From KUA’s perspective, continuity only happens when design is rooted in community.

“Restoration without displacement only happens when you design with, not just for, the existing community,” they explained. “It means being intentional at every level — from how projects are financed so homes remain attainable for long-term residents, to how buildings are designed so they feel like a natural part of the neighborhood fabric.”

That philosophy shaped the design of two recently completed affordable housing communities in English Avenue: 839 Joseph E. Boone Boulevard and 646 Echo Street.

Rather than creating stand-alone developments, the goal was integration.

“We don’t see our projects as separate from the surrounding community, so we don’t design them that way,” the team shared. “Our goal was that, over time, these buildings would become indistinguishable from the surrounding neighborhood fabric — a natural extension of English Avenue.”

Boone Boulevard and Echo Street: Continuity in Practice

At both 839 Boone Boulevard and 646 Echo Street, design decisions were intentionally human-scaled.

The buildings incorporate front porches that connect directly to the street, shared courtyards that encourage neighbors to interact, and smaller three-story walk-up buildings grouped around central green spaces. Brick and siding were selected to reflect the materials common in the surrounding neighborhood, reinforcing a residential, “homey” character.

Rather than defaulting to large, steel-and-concrete apartment blocks, KUA designed from patterns already present in Atlanta’s historic neighborhoods.

“In our experience, when people talk about the ‘character’ of a neighborhood, they often think they’re talking about architecture,” they said. “But what really gives a neighborhood its character is the community.”

The architecture, in this case, is meant to support everyday life — porches where neighbors can gather, windows that bring in light from multiple sides, shared spaces where children can play and residents can connect.

“If we’ve done our job well,” they added, “the architecture fades into the background, and what you really notice is a strong, connected community making the space their own.”

That intention is visible in the grouping of 6- to 12-unit buildings, the emphasis on daylight and cross-ventilation, and the absence of long, double-loaded corridors. These choices not only enhance livability — they also support attainability, allowing construction to remain cost-effective while creating more intimate, neighborly environments.

Partnership in Practice

For KUA, collaboration with Westside Future Fund has been central to the success of these projects.

“Westside Future Fund is truly the organization that makes this work possible,” they said. “They are a deeply place-based partner with real roots in the community, and that grounding shapes every project.”

From early site planning and parking layouts to porch placement, landscaping, and unit design, the partnership has been hands-on and iterative.

“WFF is engaged in every layer of the work, always asking how each decision will serve residents and the broader community,” KUA explained. “They also bring valuable knowledge from property management and on-the-ground experience, which helps ensure the homes are durable, comfortable, and easy to maintain over time.”

Over the years, that collaboration has led to the development of missing-middle and small apartment prototypes — many of which will be included in KUA’s expanded 2026 Housing Choice Catalog. That catalog reflects lessons learned through partnership and will allow other communities to build on what has been tested in English Avenue.

What makes the partnership especially impactful is its long-term orientation. At both KUA and WFF, we’re not simply delivering projects and moving on; we remain committed to stewardship and sustained neighborhood stability.

That continuity — in design, development, and care — reinforces the larger goal of ensuring that reinvestment strengthens existing communities.

Looking Ahead

As these buildings settle into the rhythm of daily life, KUA hopes residents will feel a sense of permanence and belonging.

“Our hope is that residents grow into these places and make them their own — that they set down roots and see these homes as long-term places to stay,” they shared. “Over time, as the landscaping matures and the materials begin to patina, we hope the buildings look like they’ve always been there.”

When that happens, architecture has done its job — stepping back so the community can take center stage.

More broadly, the team hopes projects like Boone and Echo can demonstrate what’s possible when attainable housing is designed with care and context. By showing that missing-middle housing can fit naturally within historic neighborhoods, they believe these developments can help shape broader conversations about zoning, housing choice, and inclusive growth across the city.

At its core, WFF’s work with KUA reflects a shared belief: neighborhoods thrive when residents are able to remain, belong, and build futures where they already have roots.

Through thoughtful design and long-term partnership, reinvestment on the Westside is not about replacing what exists — it is about strengthening it.

Progress is underway at 390 Sunset.

After pausing in 2023 due to the discovery of an undocumented trunk sewer line beneath the property, construction on the 26-unit development is officially moving forward. While unexpected infrastructure challenges can slow a project, they are also part of the reality of working in historic neighborhoods with layered systems and aging utilities.

“As you go underground, everything can change,” said John Ahmann. “Some of the things you expect to be done haven’t been done. There’s often more work than you think — and we’re doing what it takes to move forward.”

Westside Future Fund’s commitment — to do the extra work, to solve the unseen problems, and to stay the course — is what brings projects like the new construction at 390 Sunset to life.

Construction is now on a 16-month schedule, with anticipated completion in March 2027.

The development is supported through a layered funding partnership that includes a State of Georgia housing grant, Westside TAD funding administered through Invest Atlanta, and philanthropic investment from The Cox Foundation, The Tull Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and The Home Depot. These public and private partners play an essential role in helping ensure high-quality housing remains attainable.

Partnership has also been critical on the infrastructure side. Close coordination with the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management has helped address utility challenges while keeping the long-term affordability of the project front and center.

390 Sunset reflects what it takes to move development forward responsibly — persistence, collaboration, and a willingness to address challenges head-on. We look forward to sharing continued updates as construction progresses.