The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Inside City Hall
Mayor Dickens talks homelessness at White House gathering
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens made another stop at the White House last week, this time to join dozens of mayors from around the country to discuss ways to combat the housing affordability crisis and homelessness.
The first-term mayor was part of a delegation of nearly 50 elected leaders from the United States Conference of Mayors who visited Washington, D.C. to speak with Biden administration officials about the ways federal and local governments can partner to address the issues.
An internal survey of the organization’s members revealed that housing and homelessness was the top concern of the country’s mayors — surpassing problems surrounding public safety and economic development.
In Atlanta, Dickens has turned his focus to rapid rehousing initiatives, such as the city’s newly opened shipping container housing project, as a way to get residents off the streets while his administration works to reach his lofty affordable housing goals.
The mayors first met with top White House officials, including Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez.
The municipal leaders advocated for expanding veteran eligibility for housing vouchers, increasing funding for housing choice vouchers and raising the cap on project-based vouchers. The next day, the mayors visited Congress and met with top lawmakers including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Dickens described the trip as “great and necessary,” a spokesperson said Monday. The group discussed Atlanta’s shipping container project and the office-to-residential conversion of the 2 Peachtree building downtown as well as plans to build rental housing on top of a Midtown Atlanta fire station.
■
City Hall got a shake-up last week when Dickens announced a number of key cabinet changes, including new leadership over both Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and the Department of Watershed Management.
He also made some adjustments to his top staff, including the promotion of LaChandra Burks to interim chief operating officer from her previous role as deputy chief operating officer. Peter Aman, a veteran of former Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration, will join Dickens’ team in the new position of chief strategy officer and will report directly to the mayor.
But in the weeks leading up to his latest announcement, Dickens was already making some other changes. Last month, he introduced Paulina Guzman as the director of the mayor’s office of international and immigrant affairs. Guzman was previously serving as interim director.
Dickens also appointed Chris Davis to serve as commissioner of the city’s Department of Enterprise Asset Management. The department has the big job of managing the city’s facilities — including security measures — and overseeing Atlanta’s real estate portfolio.
■
Atlanta’s pickleball players rejoiced last year when the city launched a program to identify locations for new pickleball courts across the city as the sport has skyrocketed in popularity since the pandemic.
The Department of Parks and Recreation was aiming to create 14 dedicated courts and 22 shared courts across all City Council districts. While the city boasts more than 180 tennis courts, the metro area didn’t have a single court dedicated exclusively to pickleball.
Veteran pickleball player Tim Ball told City Council members during the last Community Development/Human Services meeting that, eight months into the program, the city isn’t on track with the number of courts it wanted to install.
“So far we have six dedicated pickleball courts, virtually no courts have been lined and I think there’s nothing under construction right now,” he said, and asked Council members to request a report from the department. We’ve also reached out to the Department of Parks and Recreation to see if they’ve hit any snags.