Evictions

But the AJC reported last year it was way behind on that goal and rising real estate prices were creating the exact opposite outcome. With relief hard to find, tenants and landlords will continue to be locked in a cycle of repeated eviction filing. For landlords, it’s a logical path. For many tenants, it’s just a fact of life in Atlanta.

‘Landlords do have discretion’

On a muggy May morning, Katy Perry’s “Roar” was blasting from a tent outside the leasing office at Willow Branch, a 186-unit apartment complex in Clarkston. About 30 yards away, roughly 150 volunteers in blue shirts were busy assembling a massive playground structure that will soon be the new centerpiece for this 46-year-old complex.

Occasionally, a small child peeked out from the balcony of the modest townhouses. Willow Branch is a diverse community with a large number of refugee families.

Most of the volunteers who helped assemble the playground work for Carmax. One, Haris Crnic, lived here two decades ago when his parents fled war in Bosnia for peace in America. He said he immediately volun- teered to come back to build a playground for the children of new immigrants.

Unlike a lot of older apartment complexes marketed to lower-income residents, the rent at Willow Branch is geared to make it easy for them to pay. One bedrooms rent for $585. A three-bed- room, two-and-a-half bath townhome goes for $850. As a result, evictions are virtually unknown.

“I think that a lot of land- lords just keep raising rent, whether the tenants can afford it or not,” said Margaret Stagmeier, president of TI Asset Management, which owns the complex. “I asked my property manager at Willow Branch how many evic- tions we had in the last year: zero. It’s because it’s affordable. My average rents were $615 last year. The tenants didn’t need to get evicted because they paid their rent. You can afford that making $10 an hour.”

And the complex is prof- itable, she said, owing in part to the its low turnover rate and virtually non-ex- istent write-offs of uncol- lected rent.

According to Stagmeier, her management team doesn’t file for eviction auto- matically when someone falls behind. Instead, they work with their tenants, pointing them toward resources that can help them get caught up.

“As a management com- pany, you’re obligated. That’s your duty, as an agent, to collect rent. But I do think that landlords do have discretion,” Stagmeier said. “I just don’t think a lot of landlords really spend a lot of time and effort using their discretion. It’s easier to just go to an automatic process.”

The model that sustains Willow Branch isn’t entirely economic. The complex is mission-driven, offering after- school programs, a commu- nity garden and other community-building efforts supported in part by a nonprofit founded by Stagmeier. Needless to say, most companies don’t operate this way.

For Stagmeier, the issue boils down to affordability. “Philosophically, until our community starts embracing naturally occurring, affordable rents, the eviction problem will continue to fester,” she said.