When 75-year-old Mary Johnson received a city of Atlanta flyer advertising a new program that pays for older residents’ property tax increases, she suspected it might be a scam.
“This can’t be real,” she remembered thinking. “They aren’t really going to pay the increase in my taxes.”
The pamphlet was advertising an Atlanta program aimed at keeping older residents in their homes by paying property tax increases for eligible homeowners over the next two decades.
Atlantans 60 years old or older that have lived in the city since 2015 and make less than $48,000 per year are eligible to apply to the program through Invest Atlanta.
Johnson was struggling to find an answer to how she was going to pay her $1,000-plus property tax increase on a fixed income and eventually took the city up on its offer.
She was accepted and has since had the $1,000-plus property tax increase paid off in full.
“I’m not a Grady baby, but I’ve been in Atlanta since ’84 and I appreciate how they’ve helped,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m going to last 20 years, but I will apply for as long as I can.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced Thursday $10 million dedicated to the program to expand the number of residents it is able to serve.
“Atlanta has become sometimes a victim of our own success,” Dickens said at City Hall on Thursday. “We have seen entire neighborhoods that were once affordable are starting to price people out now and becoming out of reach to new people.”
“People who have been in their houses for decades should not lose their home,” he added.
The 11-county Atlanta area added 62,700 residents between April 2023 and April 2024 and is expected to reach a population of nearly 8 million by 2050. That growth is driving up housing prices in metro neighborhoods — Atlantans would need to make a six-figure income to buy most homes today.
To help mitigate displacement, the city previously launched a pilot program to help pay off older residents’ property tax increases above their base. About 200 seniors applied for only 100 slots in the pilot, officials said, demonstrating the need for help.
The full program, launched this week, will serve 245 legacy residents.
“We’re talking about protecting people who have made Atlanta what it is,” said City Council member Jason Winston. “For our seniors, this is a lifeline.”
Applications are open now through May 31. Eligible residents can apply here or at investatlanta.com.
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