Atlanta Residents Say It's Hard To Find Housing Amid City's Housing Crisis

The video shows the dad in front of his daughters’ building. He said that the rent totals $1,680 but the apartment building requires each tenant to make over $5,000 a month to qualify.

“Before they can get into this apartment, they have be to qualified times three, which is above $5,000 a month,” the father said in the video.

“Please tell me which 21 [or] 22-year-old making a monthly income of over $5,000 a month after taxes?” he questioned. “No one is talking about it, but this s**t is off the chain.”

According to Mega Agent Rental Management, a tenant’s income “should be at least three (3) times the monthly rent and verifiable from an unbiased source: employer through pay stubs, tax returns, and/or bank statements.”

Social media users who live in the area have also expressed similar concerns.

“Right and jobs still wanna pay 12 hour,” one user wrote.

“People keep trying to compare it to cali/NY. Remember 1) cost of living is higher there 2) wages are higher there also. The avg income in GA is $30K. Y’all do the math,” another user tweeted.

In another video, a young woman said that Georgia lawmakers need to spend less time going after rappers and spend more time helping renters in Georgia, especially in the Atlanta metro area.

“It is so hard to find somewhere to live right now in Georgia,” she said, adding that between the “qualifications” and “rent,” it’s nearly impossible to find an apartment.

The woman in the video also alleged that the state was awarded “millions of dollars” to help aid renters.

“Georgia was granted millions of dollars to assist people with rental assistance and utilities, that of which they have not been doing,” she said.

Through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, Georgia was awarded money to help households that were unable to pay rent or utilities. According to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget website, two programs were established for the southern state: one provided $25 billion under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and the other $21.55 billion came from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The woman in the video went on to call out DeKalb County, saying that the area is “worse ranking in issuing out these funds.” According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, only 3.5% of funds were distributed by June 2021 as eviction filings stacked up in the area.

As residents in Atlanta are in search of affordable housing and governmental support, rent in the city is increasing. According to the Atlanta Regional Commission, in the last year, rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Atlanta increased by 16%, four times more than the average annual increase in the previous six years.

The City of Atlanta announced a new short-term rentals licensing requirement that promised to fix the housing crisis in the area, which was supposed to be enforced starting on April 1, SaportaReport reports. This has been delayed several times, and now the city says it’s pushing for an enforcement date of Sept. 6.