For Greater Atlanta is a storytelling series celebrating the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s 75th anniversary. Each story revisits a defining moment or movement in Atlanta’s history, exploring how the Foundation partnered with donors, nonprofits and community leaders to help the region meet the moment and build the greater Atlanta we know today.

Atlanta’s growth has brought new people, businesses, investment, and opportunity to the region. But as the cost of living has risen, finding a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home has become increasingly difficult for many families. 

Where we live shapes our access to schools, jobs, transportation, healthcare, and community. Stable housing can give families the foundation to plan for the future, while homeownership can create opportunities to build wealth across generations. 

As Atlanta’s housing challenges have grown, the Community Foundation has worked alongside donors, public agencies, nonprofits, developers, and community partners to help expand housing stability and opportunity. 

Putting Philanthropic Capital to Work 

Key Moment: GoATL Affordable Housing Fund (2018)

In 2018, the Community Foundation launched GoATL, a revolving impact investment fund designed to support long-term solutions to some of the region’s greatest needs.  

Housing became an important part of that work. 

Through impact investing, philanthropic dollars could do something different from a traditional grant: provide flexible capital for projects creating and preserving affordable housing, then be repaid and invested again. 

GoATL demonstrated another way generosity could help address Atlanta’s housing challenges, using philanthropic capital not only to support individual programs, but to help build long-term solutions. 

Building a Larger Housing Response

Key Moments: TogetherATL Affordable Housing Initiative (2022)

By 2022, housing had become central to the Community Foundation’s broader strategy for equity and shared prosperity. 

That year, the Foundation joined partners including the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, Truist, Wells Fargo, and the City of Atlanta in launching a $300 million affordable housing effort, with the goal of creating 6,000 safe and affordable housing units by 2026.  

The scale reflected the scale of the challenge. No single donor, nonprofit, developer, government agency, or funder could address Atlanta’s housing needs alone. 

Philanthropy could help by bringing resources and partners together around a shared goal. 

Responding When Housing Becomes a Crisis 

Key Moment: Forest Cove (2022)

That same year, housing instability became urgent for families living at Forest Cove, a condemned apartment complex in Atlanta’s Thomasville Heights neighborhood. 

Working alongside the City of Atlanta, the Community Foundation helped galvanize Foundation experts, board members, and partners to secure safe housing for 206 tenant families.  

Forest Cove was different from a long-term investment fund or housing development strategy. Families needed help immediately. 

But the response reflected the same principle: complex housing challenges require coordination, trusted partnerships, and resources that can move when communities need them. 

Creating Pathways to Homeownership 

Key Moment: WORTH Initiative

Affordable rental housing is only one part of Atlanta’s housing story. For many families, homeownership can provide stability and a pathway to building long-term wealth. 

Through Wealth Opportunities Realized Through Homeownership (WORTH), an initiative supported by the Wells Fargo Foundation, nonprofit housing developers and builders can access funding for predevelopment activities and shovel-ready housing developments across Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties.  

The work helps strengthen the pipeline of homes and expands opportunities for more families to move toward ownership. 

It also reflects a broader understanding of housing: a home can be more than a place to live. It can become an asset that creates stability, opportunity, and wealth for the next generation. 

Helping Atlanta Meet the Moment

Atlanta’s housing challenges cannot be solved through one program or one kind of philanthropy. 

They require affordable rental housing, pathways to homeownership, flexible capital, strong nonprofit developers, public investment, and partners willing to work together. 

For donors, that creates opportunities to make a difference at many levels. A gift can help a family facing an immediate housing crisis. Philanthropic capital can help finance affordable homes. And collective investment can support larger solutions that change what housing opportunity looks like across Atlanta. 

From GoATL and TogetherATL to Forest Cove and WORTH, the Community Foundation has helped connect generosity with the partners, capital, and local knowledge needed to expand housing stability and opportunity. 

Meeting the moment means helping more Atlantans find not just a place to live, but a place where they can build a future. 

Because a stronger Atlanta begins with a place to call home. 

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Keep the Giving Going.

Be a part of Atlanta’s philanthropic legacy. Whether you’re beginning your giving journey or looking to deepen your impact, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta can help you turn your generosity into lasting change.