Housing

SouthStar CDC is committed to preserving and creating affordable housing opportunities to ensure that our area remains a diverse, mixed-income community. Program initiatives in housing include:


Individual Development Accounts

United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, together with several community partners, initiated an asset-based development strategy known as Individual Development Accounts (IDA). This program matches the savings of low and moderate-income families on a 4:1 basis with dollars raised by United Way from community contributors. The uses of the combined IDA savings plus the match amount are restricted to the purchase of a home by an IDA participant.

Asset accumulation and investment, rather than income and consumption, are the keys to escaping and remaining out of poverty.  With this initiative, families will make down payments on the American sufficiency for their household. The primary goal of the IDA program is to help families/individuals achieve economic independence through the purchase of a critical financial asset, a home. The goal of the program is to ultimately enhance community building and community economic development.

SouthStar CDC has successfully enrolled more than 80 individuals in IDA prograsm since 2000. There are currently no IDA opportunities through SouthStar CDC.

East Central Atlanta Neighborhoods (ECAN)

ECAN was established as a result of a study by Kenneth Cole (KC) Fellows around the possibility of collaboration between the following organizations:
  • [url=http://www.whitefoord.org/]Whitefoord Community Program[/url]
  • East Atlanta Revitalization Corporation
  • SouthStar CDC
  • [url=http://www.hddc.net/]Historic District Development Corporation[/url]
  • [url=http://www.reynoldstown.org/]Reynoldstown Revitalization Corporation[/url]
  • [url=http://www.dirgart.com/cabbagetown/indexframeset.htm]Cabbagetown Neighborhood Improvement Association[/url] (CNIA)
The discussion around ECAN was to see if there were opportunities to further member organizations' missions and maximize the opportunity for funding in a tight economy.