When you walk through Historic South Atlanta, it can be difficult to spot the different types of housing we’ve created. Rental homes nestle into the landscape, gleaming in the same way workforce homes do. We make it a point to nurture beauty in the neighborhood, regardless of the price points or ultimate aim of the homes. This tactic benefits each individual homeowner, and it also furthers the overall ends of community development. Here’s a few effects of building beautiful housing.
#1 Communicates High-Quality, Unseen Work
“We work hard to bring every element of a home up to standard or beyond,” Director of Mixed-Income Housing, Cynthia McNeal, says. “We ensure that plumbing, electrical, foundation work, all of those unseen elements of a house, are of the highest quality. But prospective residents don’t see what’s in the walls, and oftentimes aren’t thinking about what’s inside the walls,” she notes. Choosing aesthetically pleasing colors and finishes in a home is one way the housing team visually communicates the care embedded inside a home.
Donell Woodson, Lead Trainer at the Lupton Center, echoes this sentiment. “People who will never see the sweat and time into a home will feel it as soon as they walk in,” he says.
#2 Obscures Class Divisions
As we’ve written about in the past, it’s easier for neighbors to self-segregate by socioeconomic status when its markers are on full display. In many neighborhoods, housing is a key indicator that people use to sort each other into economic categories. Our housing initiatives buck this trend. “Everyone deserves a beautiful home, but some people can’t usually afford to have one the way others can,” Cynthia states. Regardless of whether a home will be subsidized, rented, or purchased at market rate, the team is careful to use each house as an opportunity to enliven the block.
“We take a look at the whole block to make sure we’re going to be consistent with the other homes,” Cynthia says, “but we want something that stands out, looks a little bit different, and brings a little bit of brightness to the area, too.” She and the rest of the team collaborate to select trending exterior and interior accents while keeping focused livability.
#3 Debunks Stereotypes and Myths
Oftentimes, Cynthia witnesses the full cycle of a home’s construction or rehabilitation. “Most of the time I’m there at the closing table to get the building, at the closing table with the new resident, and everything in between,” she laughs. She reports that at showings, she often hears comments like, “Wow, I didn’t expect it to look like this,” from people coming into South Atlanta for the first time. That surprise initial surprise is telling, and Cynthia has enjoyed watching it subside over the years.
“People outside the neighborhood used to say, ‘why would anyone buy a house here?’ or they would ask me if I felt comfortable,” she recalls. When they walk into a home, Cynthia says, “it’s important that they can imagine themselves living here.” In this way, beautiful homes proclaim the beauty of South Atlanta, and change people’s perspective.
#4 Honors Neighborhood History
“In my own memory, beautiful spaces get tied to the beautiful people I knew there,” Donell says. As an ardent lover of South Atlanta’s History, Donell asserts that beautiful homes manifest the historic reality of the place. “The people who went before us made Brownsville a relationally and aesthetically beautiful place,” he says, “we’ve picked up the baton of the people who cared for this place. That baton connects us to them. It ties their history to our ongoing history.”
Cynthia hears similar thoughts from neighbors who have lived in South Atlanta for many years. “They want to see the neighborhood come back and thrive the way they used to. They remember what it was like when they moved here, and they’re excited to see people coming to make it thrive again,” she says.
#5 It’s the Right Thing to Do
“As a faith-based organization,” Donell says, “we believe our Creator makes good things. We bear that image. If we really believe that, it’s actually untrue to who we are to create something that’s mediocre or sub-par. It’s a denial of who we’re created to be as humans.”
Cynthia vehemently echoes the sentiment. “Everyone wants the same thing when it comes to homes,” she shares, “just because people have a lower income doesn’t mean we have a right to give them lower quality. If we want to have relationships with our neighbors, they have to know they bought a home in good faith.” She pauses and laughs. “And honestly,” she continues, “I’m just the type of person to do things right. I can’t do something that I know isn’t as good as it should be.”
At the end of the day, community developers have an opportunity to support neighborhoods communicating their identity. As we focus on equitable, mixed-income development in Historic South Atlanta, creating beautiful residences of all shapes and sizes serves as one more method of signaling the immense worth of our neighbors. We’re grateful for the chance to make our neighborhood gleam! Your support and encouragement makes it possible.
