Latest news with #BlackAtlantans
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Atlanta Budget a Safeguard Against Potential Trump Cuts, Lawmakers Say
Atlanta City Council members say proposed cuts to federal aid programs many Black Atlantans count on and concerns about a national recession were on their minds last week when they approved another record-setting fiscal year budget. 'Everyone seems to assume we're going to have a recession,' council member Howard Shook told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. 'Things are so unpredictable in [Washington] that it's just hard to say what's going to happen.' Council members said they put more funding in this year's budget because they worry an economic downturn related to President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign goods will have a domino effect on Atlanta's economy, and as a result will impact the city's tax revenue. They're also concerned about the effects anticipated reductions to federal aid included in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will have on city operations. 'The budget is trying to grapple with the potential that some federal money is going to go away,' council President Doug Shipman told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. The federal budget bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on May 22 still has to be approved in the U.S. Senate and signed by Trump before becoming law. Major cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other critical programs many low-income Black Atlantans rely on for medical coverage and for paying their bills are included. More than half of Georgia SNAP benefit recipients were Black in 2020, according to the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute. Roughly 25% of Black Georgians were enrolled in Medicaid in 2023, according to the State Health Access Data Assistance Center. Only about 10% of white Georgians were on Medicaid the same year. In its current form, the Big Beautiful Bill would also cut funding for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's rental assistance programs by more than $26 billion, or roughly 43%. Shipman said those cuts could have a devastating impact on federal funding for affordable housing efforts in Atlanta, which is one reason the City Council voted to increase funding in its next fiscal year budget. 'The city is having to take on more of the burden of the programs that have historically been federal in nature,' Shipman said. 'We're going to try to do our best to continue to support folks [with] rental assistance, affordable housing, [and] new units.' Capital B Atlanta has reached out to Mayor Andre Dickens' office for comment. Shook and other council members voted unanimously in favor of the estimated $3 billion budget for fiscal year 2026, which begins on July 1, despite concerns about running a deficit next year, which includes a general fund budget of about $975.4 million. The city was already projected to have a $33 million deficit for the current fiscal year budget, largely due to lack of attrition and overtime pay for the Atlanta Police Department, according to lawmakers. Dickens' office told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that it has already cut the anticipated deficit in half by limiting hiring for vacant city job openings. Shook said the city's workforce was reduced by about 400 positions to help balance the current fiscal year budget. He said the mayor's office has agreed to periodically report to the council the status of department spending next fiscal year to avoid running a deficit again. Balancing the budget has become an ongoing problem in Atlanta, a city of only about half a million residential taxpayers, that is responsible for providing municipal government services to an estimated 6.3 million metro area residents who work in or commute into the city. 'There's a very widespread recognition that FY26 will have to exist in and compete with a time of really unrivaled [macroeconomic] uncertainty,' Shook said. 'We're not going to wait for quarterly budget reports, as has been the custom.' The post Atlanta Budget a Safeguard Against Potential Trump Cuts, Lawmakers Say appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
If Atlanta Is a Black Mecca, Why Are 8 Out of 10 Homeless People Black?
Forty-seven percent of Atlanta residents are Black, but the city commonly referred to as the Black Mecca had a homeless population in January that was 80% Black, according to the latest Point-In-Time homelessness census count released on Monday. Of equal concern, on Jan. 27, the city logged 131 homeless families, an 18% rise from the same month last year. Roughly 90% of the individuals in those families were Black, down about 2 points from 2024. Like many cities in America, Atlanta has seen an increase in homelessness — primarily fueled by Black people living on the margins — for a third consecutive year. But city leaders and advocates alike are touting that the rate of increase has slowed considerably. The annual survey of homeless people in the metro area revealed a 1% rise in Atlanta's overall homeless population. The city saw a 7% year-over-year increase in 2024, and a 33% surge in 2023. The results from this year's PIT count show the city's homeless crisis appears to be 'stabilizing,' according to Cathryn Vassell, CEO of Partners for HOME — the nonprofit that manages Atlanta's PIT count on behalf of the federal government. Vassell told Capital B Atlanta that Black Atlantans remain overrepresented among individuals experiencing homelessness due to 'continued disproportionate inequities' in the metro area. The stark disparity underscores the ongoing economic challenges and affordable housing crisis many Black people face in a gentrifying metropolis fueled by a booming economy that has become known as the most unequal city in America. 'We know that there is gross income inequality that is disproportionate racially in our community as well,' Vassell said. 'That is all contributing to the disproportionate representation of people of color in our system.' The PIT count data showed Atlanta's higher cost of living has fueled a sizable rise in the city's number of homeless families this year despite signs that municipal leaders have reached a turning point in their battle to provide housing to people living on the margins. Read More: Atlanta's Largest Homeless Encampment Is About to Be Cleared The nearly 27% rate of consumer price inflation in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metro area between January 2020 and August 2024 was the third highest in the nation, according to a Pew Research study released in October. The fact that 8 out of 10 homeless people are Black in a city known as a Black Mecca should 'stop everyone in their tracks.' Liliana Bakhtiari, Atlanta City Council member '[The data] is a signal that the house is still on fire, and the scale of the crisis is bigger than what cities alone can handle,' Atlanta City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari told Capital B Atlanta after attending a briefing on this year's PIT count last week. The fact that 8 out of 10 homeless people are Black in a city known as a Black Mecca should 'stop everyone in their tracks,' according to Bakhtiari. 'That's not a coincidence, that's the product of a system that's failed Black families for generations — due to redlining, due to wage discrimination, due to mass incarceration, due to unequal access to healthcare and education,' she added. 'Homelessness isn't just a housing problem. It's a justice problem.' The report noted the strides the city has made addressing homelessness in recent years, citing that the overall homeless population has declined 30% since 2016 and about 11% since 2020 despite increasing for the past three years. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has made increasing affordable housing and combatting homelessness two of his signature issues since taking office almost four years ago. Last year, the Atlanta City Council allocated $60 million at Dickens' request to addressing the growing homelessness problem. Those funds, Vassell said, are paying for construction of 500 rapid housing units for the homeless, including 40 apartments at the Melody Project, located in southern downtown Atlanta, and 23 at the Bonaventure, both of which opened last year. Dickens' office hasn't responded to requests for comment. Read More: Revamped Motel Gives Atlanta Unhoused Second Chance— But for How Long? 'By the end of the year we will have brought on 500 units from that $60 million,' Vassell said. Unfortunately, Vassell warns, the progress Atlanta has made housing its homeless population could be undone later this year if President Donald Trump advances his plan for significant budget cuts. The Trump administration has proposed cutting rental aid by 40% in its 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' which the U.S. House approved in May. Vassell called the proposed cuts 'terrifying' and said it could eliminate Atlanta's permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs funded through the city's Continuum of Care resources. As many as 2,000 people could lose stable housing, according to Vassell. 'This would be a tragic impact across our community,' she said. The post If Atlanta Is a Black Mecca, Why Are 8 Out of 10 Homeless People Black? appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Know Your Rights: Immigrant Legal Resources
Uchechukwu Onwa likens his three-month detention by immigration agents — when he was apprehended at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in 2017 after fleeing homophobic violence in his Nigerian homeland — to the treatment of African ancestors being transported to America during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 'I was handcuffed from my hands down to my waist and my legs,' said Onwa, who now serves as an organizer at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, an advocacy group for Black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. He recalls the discomfort and inhumanity of having his ankle and wrist chained to a hospital bed while he received medical treatment — all because he was wrongly told his visa was insufficient to enter the country. 'I saw first hand the injustices and abuse that Black migrants are experiencing in detention.' Onwa shares the rising concern that such experiences will become more common for Black Atlantans due to a nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigration, reflected through both federal law and policies. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, along with other local and federal law enforcement, have reportedly detained MARTA riders and made arrests at metro-area churches in January. That same month, President Donald Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain any undocumented immigrant who admits to or has been arrested, charged, or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting; assault of a police officer; or 'any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury.' Immigration attorneys and immigrant rights groups have decried the law as another tool to target undocumented migrants that won't actually help make communities any safer. Racially biased policing practices result in Black immigrants being stopped, searched and arrested more frequently than non-Black immigrants. There were 190,000 Black immigrants living in the Atlanta metro area in 2019, making it the fourth-largest population of its kind in the United States, according to Pew Research. 'Our experiences as Black immigrants is different,' said Onwa. 'With the current political climate, I think this is really the time for Black communities to get together and organize.' Amid ICE raids and other deportation efforts happening with growing frequency, legal services and advocacy groups have stepped up to offer assistance to those in need. Capital B Atlanta has compiled a list of legal and organizing resources for Black immigrants in metro Atlanta. Organizations that have an existing relationship with detention facilities are noted. Location: Norcross Phone number: (770) 685-1499 Email: help@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Detention facilities: Atlanta City Detention Center, Cobb County Jail, Hall County Jail, Irwin County Detention Center, North Georgia Detention Center, Stewart Detention Center, Whitfield County Jail Location: Atlanta Phone number: (770) 938-1112 Email: info@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (678) 222-3920 Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Sometimes Detention facilities: Folkston ICE Processing Center, Stewart Detention Center Location: Atlanta Phone number: (678) 335-6040 Email: info@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: No Detention facilities: Atlanta City Detention Center Location: Riverdale Phone number: (404) 907-1927 Email: dan@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 500-8097 Email: Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 292-7731 Email: Non-legal status accepted: No Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 334-9170 Email: infoatlanta@ Non-legal status accepted: No Fee charged?: No Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 844-5205 Text: (470) 620-5157 Email: Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta and Norcross Phone number: (404) 471-1889 or (678) 205-1018 Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Tucker Phone number: (404) 299-2185 Email: tapestri@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: No Location: Atlanta Phone number: (347) 464-5422 Email: info@ Location: Atlanta Phone number: (470) 890-2932 Location: Atlanta; Decatur; Clarkston Phone number: (404) 875-0201 Location: Atlanta Email: vmills@ Location: Decatur Phone number: (404) 437-7767 Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 292-7731 The post Know Your Rights: Immigrant Legal Resources appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
Why Affordable Housing Advocates Worry Atlanta's Unhoused Population Is Growing
It's been about three years since Janice Ruff reported her former landlord to the Atlanta Police Department's housing code enforcement division for refusing to make repairs to her old apartment. That landlord received an estimated $3,500 fine, according to Ruff, who said he evicted her a short time later for having a 'smart mouth.' She's been homeless ever since. Capital B Atlanta spotted the 62-year-old Ruff using a walker to travel down Cleveland Avenue on Wednesday. Advocates say she's one of a growing number of unhoused Black Atlantans struggling to get back on their feet who list the higher cost of rent and lack of affordable housing as their biggest obstacles. 'It's real hard out here,' Ruff told Capital B Atlanta. 'You can't find no low-income apartments. … You got to have enough income. You have to have enough [security deposit] to be able to get an apartment.' Atlanta's homeless population appears to be on the rise for the third consecutive year, according to experts who say low-income, often Black, city residents who've lived here most of their lives make up the majority of those dwelling on the streets, in shelters, and in extended-stay hotels. The homeless aid group known as Partners for HOME and its affiliate partners in Atlanta Continuum of Care conducted their annual point-in-time census count of the metro area's unhoused community this week from Monday through Wednesday. The count is submitted annually to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine the number of people experiencing homelessness across the country. The federal government uses this data to allocate resources to local aid providers. The official homelessness count total won't be released until later this year, but aid group leaders say they anticipate another surge. The homeless count conducted in 2023 revealed a 33% year-over-year rise in the number of unhoused people living in the Atlanta metro area. Last year, their ranks grew by 7% to nearly 2,900, enough to make Atlanta's homeless population the 25th largest in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. Black people, who constitute about 47% of the city's population, made up roughly 86% of the city's homeless population last year, according to Partners for HOME. 'My guess is that we will probably see, at minimal, a 7% increase yet again, if not more, but what that number would be is really too early to tell,' Raphael Holloway, CEO of the Gateway Center, a homeless service provider that manages four local homeless services locations, told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. Holloway and other homeless aid advocates stressed the need to wait for their full count before precise deductions can be made, but based their preliminary conclusions on their own observations over the past year. Multiple aid workers said tent cities have grown larger, more visible, and harder for public officials to ignore downtown near Atlanta City Hall, the Georgia State Capitol, and the headquarters of the Gateway Center, which manages roughly 600 total beds in the city. The problem appears to be worsening, according to Tracy Woodard, program manager for InTown Cares, a nonprofit that specializes in working with unhoused residents who've been homeless for extended periods of time. Woodard expressed confidence that this year's final homeless count will 'definitely increase' and said more than half of the unhoused people she encounters regularly are 'Grady babies,' legacy Atlanta residents who are overwhelmingly Black and often low-income. Woodard said the greatest cause of their displacement is the high cost of rent. The median rent price for a one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta reached nearly $1,700 this month, according to up 10.7% from 2019. Rent prices in metro Atlanta leveled off last year since peaking in 2022, according to an Atlanta Regional Commission report, but rates have remained higher than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Before the pandemic. I would work with these people who were getting a Social Security check, which is $750, $800 a month, and I could find them a room for maybe $500 a month,' Woodard said. '[Today], you can't find that within 50 miles of Atlanta.' One of the more distressing realities of Atlanta's problem with homelessness is the growing number of unhoused people who are gainfully employed but still don't earn enough to afford rent in the city where they work. Woodard estimates half of the unhoused people with whom she works have full-time jobs. She said many work in food service, hospitality, and service sector industries that used to pay enough to live in Atlanta before low-income housing vanished. She said policymakers concerned about maximizing real estate profits need to consider who's going to do lower-paying service industry work in a city where many low-income residents don't own vehicles. 'They're making $15 an hour. Where are they going to stay?' she said. 'Are they going to drive two hours each way? … No. You need to have something that's in the city so that you can keep the city running.' Both Woodard and Holloway praised Mayor Andre Dickens for prioritizing affordable housing construction, but they also expressed concern that the many units being built are priced too high. Those housing costs also affect folks who help the unhoused, according to Holloway, who said many homeless aid workers are leaving the sector because it doesn't pay well enough to keep up with the cost of living. 'You have this dynamic of the individuals that are providing the service also now going through struggles to work in this space because of the cost of living and the impact inflation is having on their lives,' he said. 'It's becoming more and more difficult to even draw people to want to work in the homelessness space.' Increasing funding for substance abuse and mental health training is one of the main proposals recommended by Holloway and Woodard in addition to building more low-income housing and adopting 'Housing First' aid policy initiatives. Ruff said most of Atlanta's so-called affordable housing units aren't affordable for people like her. 'Help me find a low-income apartment, and I'll bet you I pay my rent every month,' she said. The post Why Affordable Housing Advocates Worry Atlanta's Unhoused Population Is Growing appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How the Laken Riley Act Could Impact Black Immigrant Communities in Atlanta
President Donald Trump is moving forward with his plans to crack down on immigration, and Black Atlantans could soon find themselves targeted by a related bill recently passed in Congress. In conjunction with his mass deportation plan, Trump is soon expected to sign into law the Laken Riley Act, which passed the House and Senate last week. The legislation would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain any undocumented immigrant who admits to or has been arrested, charged, or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting; assault of a police officer; or 'any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury.' The bill also gives states the power to sue the federal government if an undocumented immigrant brings harm or commits a crime against a citizen. The federal legislation is likely to have direct local impact, as metro Atlanta has the fourth-highest Black immigrant population in the country, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center report. Black Atlantans — immigrants included — are most likely to be stopped, searched and arrested by police, which can often result in detention and deportation. The Laken Riley Act also comes in the midst of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a law enforcement agency within DHS, conducting raids in metro Atlanta suburbs with high immigrant populations beginning this past weekend. Capital B breaks down what you need to know about the Laken Riley Act and how it could affect Black people in Atlanta. Laken Riley was a 22-year-old student from Woodstock, Georgia, who was studying nursing at Augusta University's Athens campus when she was murdered while on a morning run in February 2024. Her killer, José Antonio Ibarra, is an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela who had previously been arrested in Texas and New York. Just five months before the murder, Ibarra was cited by law enforcement for stealing food and clothes from a Walmart in Athens. Ibarra was found guilty of her murder in November and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Proponents of the Laken Riley Act argue that it is written to protect Americans from potential harm while ensuring that undocumented immigrants who have been arrested for a crime are processed for deportation as quickly as possible. Immigration attorneys and immigrant rights groups are decrying the bill as another tool to target undocumented migrants that won't actually help make communities any safer. They argue that the language of the bill puts law-abiding undocumented residents at undue risk of deportation because anyone who is arrested, charged, or convicted of (or admits to) any forms of theft or violent crime must be detained by DHS, according to the legislation. ICE has also been known to wrongfully detain documented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike, which happened last week during a raid in Newark, New Jersey. DHS has already warned Congress that the agency would be unable to enforce the law with the resources they are currently allotted and would likely have to release undocumented immigrants already in custody. (The department estimated a $26.9 billion cost to implement it in the first year.) While supporters have championed this bill as a step toward addressing crime by immigrants, there is no evidence that crime by immigrants is widespread. A 2024 American Immigration Council report revealed that while the U.S. immigrant population rose by 1.7 million people from 2017 to 2022, the national violent crime rate dropped by 3.6% (the overall crime rate saw a 15.3% decrease). In the past, ICE and DHS were only required to detain and deport undocumented immigrants who are arrested on certain serious felonies, such as murder or espionage. The Laken Riley Act increases the number and type of offenses that mandate deportation. Both of Georgia's Democratic senators — Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — voted yes last week. The U.S. Senate passed the bill by a vote of 64-35, with 12 Democrats crossing the aisle. Three of the four Democrats representing the Atlanta metro area in the U.S. House of Representatives voted against the bill: Nikema Williams, Hank Johnson, and David Scott. Lucy McBath, whose district has been redrawn twice by Republican legislators in the state house, voted in favor of the bill. The House passed the bill last Wednesday by a vote of 263-156, with the support of 46 Democrats. This bill is only targeted at federal agencies like DHS. Neither Atlanta Police nor Georgia State Patrol are responsible for rounding up undocumented immigrants. But under Georgia law, local police have to play a role in reporting undocumented people. If a person who is arrested or is a suspect in a criminal investigation cannot provide valid identification or a document confirming their immigration status, then the police must verify that person's immigration status with the appropriate federal agency. Georgia, like most Southern states, does not allow undocumented people to apply for a driver's license. Though the onus is not on the arresting agency (likely a local police or sheriff's department) to detain the undocumented person until ICE can collect them, the Laken Riley Act would greatly increase the number of people who must be detained by ICE. The post How the Laken Riley Act Could Impact Black Immigrant Communities in Atlanta appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
