Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens Says City’s Goals Won’t Change In Midst Of DEI Pushbacks — ‘We Want Atlanta To Be A City Of Opportunity For Everyone’
Atlanta, GA, will continue to be a city of opportunity, according to Mayor Andre Dickens.
Affordable Housing
Dickens assumed his post as mayor in 2022, and since then he has implemented various plans to the benefit of the city, including providing affordable housing. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Atlanta’s first rapid housing initiative launched in January 2024 in south downtown on city-owned property. It featured 40 shipping containers that were turned into private living quarters, with the one room including a bed, bathroom, and kitchenette.
The initiative encompasses a city-wide goal to establish 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030, which will benefit the unsheltered, senior citizens, families with children, school teachers, and young adults who are not earning a large salary, and other populations. Already, 11,000 affordable housing units have been built. These efforts have also been supported by a $50 million bond proposed by Dickens in 2024, along with $10 million the city council introduced. The latter would come from the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which will be allocated over a six-year period, per Smart Cities Dive.
“Atlanta is like other major cities in the country where cost of living, price of rent continues to go up as the cost to construct housing does,” Dickens said during an interview with AFROTECH™. “And it’s just going up, the cost, interest on loans. What we’re trying to do is mitigate that cost… We’re well on our way to meet or exceed that 20,000 unit goal of affordable housing.”
Championing Black-Owned Businesses
Atlanta is also the leading hub for Black-owned business for the third consecutive year, says FOX 5. Investing in Black-owned businesses across various sectors has taken root in the form of not only capital but also technical assistance through Invest Atlanta, which is the city’s official economic development authority. It is governed by a nine-member board of directors, and Dickens serves as its chairman, according to its website.
To support the next generation of entrepreneurs, the authority also launched the Atlanta Local Legacy program for business owners who have been operating for over 30 years. It offers them grants to ensure their business can sustain and successfully transition to their family members.
“We’re helping them with that so they can keep that business in our community and keep the wealth within the family and not lose that business,” he expressed.
Leading In The Face Of DEI Pushbacks
Looking ahead, Dickens intends on maintaining the goals set out so far under his term. However, there may be pivots to his strategies due to changes coming from President Donald Trump. Atlanta has been able to navigate and thrive as a blue city in a majority red state, but Dickens says what he is seeing at the federal level is different.
“That administration has not been as forward about how they want to work with cities. The Biden-Harris administration loved working with cities,” he noted. “As Biden would tell me directly, ‘mayors just get stuff done.’ Mayors are on the ground. It’s the second hardest job in America… My concern is when you hear news that the federal vouchers that go for affordable housing are going to be reduced, that’s scary because Atlanta has about 19,000 households that get federal vouchers from the D.C. HUD department (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). So if you reduce that, that means people could be on the street or we gotta find other places for that money. We don’t have federal dollars that you can make up quickly in the city’s budget.”
The Trump administration has unsubscribed from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which has impacted funding for schools and universities as well as federal funding for grants and programs. According to Dickens, though, Atlanta’s support of DEI isn’t going to change. Currently, 37% of revenue generated by the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport goes back to a minority business.
“We pride ourselves on economic inclusion and the words ‘diversity and equity’ and all that matters to us. So, when those things are under attack, it could really affect the households in our city and affect how we do business,” he said.
Allyship will be crucial for Atlanta under the Trump administration, requiring open and sustained dialogue between state and federal leaders to ensure the community’s needs are prioritized.
“We want Atlanta to be a city of opportunity for everyone, no matter what race, no matter what age, no matter what physical condition, no matter what sexual orientation, no matter how much money you have. We want it to be an opportunity for everyone… I’m an optimist. I believe there’s a solution for just about everything,” Dickens expressed.
