Last month, I joined city leaders and community partners as we stood alongside Mayor Andre Dickens as he launched the City of Atlanta’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative (NRI) — a bold effort to ensure Atlanta’s prosperity reaches every corner of our city. 

For me, it was a full-circle moment. When I moved into Vine City years ago, I saw firsthand what it meant for a community to be surrounded by growth but not included in it. Imagine you’re in the desert, you see water tanks and the water is not being shared. For too long, neighborhoods like Vine City, English Avenue, and Ashview Heights have lived that reality. Given the challenges that neighborhoods have suffered — with people leaving as a result of all the disinvestment and redlining that occurred — we need those water tanks. 

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative changes that story. By extending and strengthening the Westside Tax Allocation District (TAD), the City is reaffirming a simple but powerful truth: coordinated public investment can restore neighborhoods without displacing the people who have sustained them through decades of disinvestment.

The Power of the Westside TAD

The Westside TAD has been an important tool for restoration of the historic Westside neighborhoods.

Through partnerships with Invest Atlanta, Atlanta Housing, Quest Community Development Corporation, and others, Westside Future Fund has leveraged over $6 million in Westside TAD commitments to finance more than $37 million in development — a 6-to-1 return on public investment. Those dollars have created nearly 400 deeply affordable housing units, preserved historic landmarks, and supported hundreds of families in remaining rooted in the neighborhoods they call home.

Public investment through the Westside TAD has been the catalyst that makes private and philanthropic investment possible. The TAD provides the backbone for critical infrastructure that allows affordable housing and community restoration to take root. Building on that foundation, Westside Future Fund and our partners have invested many times over in direct development, preservation, and resident support. Together, these public and private commitments are creating the conditions for lasting, inclusive growth.

These investments are visible everywhere — from restored historic homes like 220 Sunset Avenue, the childhood home of Mayor Maynard Jackson Jr., to new mixed-use developments that combine affordable housing with essential retail and services. They show that the right kind of public investment changes lives.

Why the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative Matters

Extending the TAD allows the City and its partners to keep leveraging public investment to unlock private development, complete in-progress projects, sustain affordable housing pipelines, and deliver the infrastructure improvements that make all of it possible.

This alignment between the public and private sectors is how real progress happens. The TAD makes streets, sidewalks, and utilities feasible; private and philanthropic partners bring the vertical investment that fills those streets with homes, businesses, and opportunity. That partnership is what transforms neighborhoods like English Avenue and Vine City — communities that for too long have been left behind — into places where legacy residents and new neighbors can thrive together.

This isn’t just about financing buildings or infrastructure. It’s about investing in people and in the shared future of Atlanta. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, grounded in the proven success of the Westside TAD, ensures that public resources continue to meet private commitment — turning decades of disinvestment into decades of growth and inclusion.

Looking Ahead

At Westside Future Fund, we believe that restoration without displacement is not just possible — it’s happening. And the Westside TAD has been a key part of that success.

As the City moves forward with the Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, we are proud to stand with Mayor Dickens, Invest Atlanta, and our many community partners to ensure that this next chapter of investment continues to strengthen the fabric of the historic Westside.

Together, we can build a community Dr. King would be proud to call home — vibrant, inclusive, and rooted in shared prosperity.

Let’s do the work together.

 

John Ahmann
President & CEO
Westside Future Fund