Seniors Housing & Healthcare Trends

LOS ANGELES: A 47 microunit community for the unhoused elderly is now being planned for 2026 but Eastside Atlanta residents on Tuesday night overwhelmingly rejected a rezoning proposal for a 47 micro-unit apartment complex to provide supportive housing to homeless people over age 62. Many said the proposal is too dense for a residential neighborhood and voiced concerns about traffic congestion and public safety.

The chorus of “no” votes doesn’t mean Stryant’s Investment’s plan to build long-term housing for unhoused people is finished. The Atlanta Zoning Review Board will vote on the rezoning next month, after considering the neighborhoods’ objections. From there, Atlanta City Council will ultimately decide the project’s fate.

Stryant wants to build the affordable housing complex at 88 Howard St., a vacant lot next to Turner Monumental AME Church, which owns the land. Units would be earmarked for unhoused seniors who earn no more than $40,000, which is half the area median income. The complex will provide supportive services, including substance-use and mental health treatment.

But Neighborhood Planning Unit O, which represents Kirkwood, Edgewood, and East Lake, on Jan. 27 rejected the developer’s bid to rezone the 0.66 acre lot from single-family to planned development housing.

Over 200 residents joined the Zoom call to question Stryant co-founder Stan Sugarman and hash out what types of apartment complexes should be allowed in single-family communities. Many expressed concerns about adding 47 formerly unhoused people to a residential neighborhood, underscoring how potent the stigma of homelessness can be in urban planning disputes.

Many eastside residents on the 200-plus-person Zoom call expressed dismay at the size of the proposed complex. The two-story building would offer 47 microunits of about 250 to 275 square feet each, with shared common space.

Neighborhood opposition, said Ross Schneider, “has nothing to do with housing seniors. It has to do with packing 47 seniors in closets in the middle of a residential neighborhood — so this church can make money off a land lease.”

Others raised concerns about the project’s traffic impact, since the plan includes only two parking spaces. That will cause more street parking and congestion, they said. The church’s lawyer, Steve Rothman, dismissed that issue, saying there were only two spaces because most residents won’t have cars. Staff providing supportive services can use the church parking lot, he added.

But other neighbors strongly supported the proposal. “I’m less worried about homes for cars than I am about homes for people. Thank you for this project, Turner AME,” said Evan Matthews.

“I understand concerns about density and feeling like this is not a good enough project, but this is the project that is in front of us. The reason we have the homeless problems that we have now is because we closed off opportunities because they weren’t good enough – without replacing them with anything,” said East Lake resident Sara Patenaude, the policy director for affordable housing lender, Reinvestment Fund.

“This is something that communities across the country are trying to do right now,” added Patenaude, a longtime affordable housing advocate.

Some neighbors doubted Stryant’s commitment to making the project permanent supportive housing. They grilled co-founder Stan Sugarman on why the company hadn’t signed a community benefits agreement to ensure the project doesn’t house dangerous criminals, or get sold or transformed into something besides affordable housing once rezoned for denser development.

“You’ve now said this project is intended for people who are homeless,” said Ben Kaplan. “If that’s the case, why are you unwilling to commit to HUD-recognized [permanent supportive housing] best practices that exist to protect residents and the surrounding community?”

“The vast majority of the neighbors living close to the property are against this,” added one nearby neighbor, Steven Suna.

Sugarman said in an interview that a community benefits agreement — which could guarantee the housing will remain affordably priced — is on the table, but will only be inked if the development moves forward.