Atlanta Housing Authority

The Atlanta Housing Authority or AHA is organized under Georgia law to develop, acquire, lease and operate affordable housing for low-income families. Today, AHA is the largest housing agency in Georgia and one of the largest in the United States, serving approximately 50,000 people.

All of the old-style public housing projects were demolished by 2011. AHA now has six primary ways of helping people with housing needs: In 2011, the AHA served 21,267 households, of which:

The history of the AHA goes back to Charles Forrest Palmer (1892–1973), an Atlanta real estate developer. Palmer became an expert on techniques to improve housing for the poor and public housing, including approaches and implementations in Europe at the time. This was in an era when most poor people in Atlanta lived in dilapidated houses or shanties without indoor plumbing or electricity - such conditions would persist in some parts of Atlanta, such as Buttermilk Bottom, until the 1960s.

Palmer organized the building of Techwood Homes, the first public housing project in the United States. Palmer met Judge John S. Candler, brother to Coca-Cola owner Asa Griggs Candler, who in 1920 persuaded Palmer to move to Atlanta to exploit the commercial investment opportunities there. Palmer opened a real estate firm there, Palmer. Inc., specializing in downtown office properties. In his memoirs he stated that his initial idea to improve slums (which were nearby Downtown Atlanta) was to increase the value of his downtown properties.

In 1933, he organized the Techwood Homes project, one of the first efforts at slum clearance in the United States by the Public Works Administration. He also helped developed its sister project, University Homes, built for blacks (Techwood was for whites only). In 1938, Palmer served as President of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and also organized the new Atlanta Housing Authority, of which he served as the first Chairman, until 1940.

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