Comprehensive Housing Plan
DeKalb County has long been in need of a plan that guides the County’s efforts to ensure that DeKalb residents have access to affordable, healthy, safe housing, and we now have the resources and information to make it happen. In early 2025 DeKalb County will begin the process of creating our first-ever Comprehensive Housing Plan that will make recommendations for policies, programs, and investments to produce and preserve more housing affordability across DeKalb County, and set goals for actions and outcomes that will act as a roadmap for our ongoing housing affordability efforts. Quality affordable housing is not just a moral and legal obligation on DeKalb County government’s part, but it is also a critical piece of our economic development vision for DeKalb as a vibrant, thriving place to which we can all call home.
Please see the following link <here> for my legislation establishing funding along with a content framework for the Comprehensive Housing Plan, and stay tuned for information about community engagement events regarding the Housing Plan process.
DeKalb Housing Fund
DeKalb County has an obligation to invest local resources towards housing affordability goals so that we can best leverage the federal and state resources that we receive. Our current reliance only on scant federal and state financial resources is insufficient to meet our deepening housing affordability crisis. A DeKalb Housing Fund, sourced with local dollars and under local control, is a critically important tool that DeKalb needs in order to accelerate the creation of more affordable housing, and to encourage greater investment from our governmental and philanthropic partners. Find outpartners.
See this link <here> for my legislation to establish a funding source for a new DeKalb Housing Fund. More work is needed to adopt this legislation and create the guidelines for its governance and use, but we look forward to your support as we push ahead in 2025.
DeKalb Land Trust
Another important partner that can help DeKalb reach our pertinent housing affordability goals is a Community Land Trust (or CLT) that would serve the county as a whole. My colleague, Commissioner Ted Terry, and I are collaborating on an effort to envision and lay the foundation for a new DeKalb Land Trust, an independent non-profit organization that will partner with DeKalb County and other stakeholders to build and manage affordable housing across DeKalb. CLT’s across the nation are being credited for creating new pathways to homeownership, for being strong community partners, and for being an efficient means of investment in affordability due to the fact they maintain affordability in perpetuity. We look forward to leading the process in 2025 of creating a new DeKalb Land Trust!
For more information on CLTs, see this link to the Grounded Solutions Network, the national advocacy and technical assistance organization for CLTs nationwide: https://groundedsolutions.org/
DeKalb Housing Data
Explore housing data from DeKalb County gathered by the Atlanta Regional Commission, and other housing information here: https://metroatlhousing.org/counties/dekalb/
Andrew Schneggenburger
District 2 Housing Policy Advisor
Owner, Porch & Square, LLC
Recognizing that stable, healthy housing is the foundation to a high quality of life, Andy is a committed advocate for housing markets that meet the affordability needs of all people by promoting the combination of public policy and growth and investment strategies to preserve and create sustainability. His knowledge base is rooted in a strong education, earning degrees from both the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech, which have allowed him to flourish in over 20 years of designing, developing, and advocating for housing affordability in the public, private and non-profit sectors, even being awarded a Rose Architectural Fellowship for his work. During his fellowship, Andy broadened his understanding of a variety of fields including mixed-use and residential real-estate development, participatory community design strategies, environmentally conscious practices, city planning, and neighborhood revitalization. He also has experience leading the charge in the nonprofit world, having spent time as the Executive Director of Georgia ACT, a congregation of affordable housing and community development-oriented non-profits. Andy now spends his time in the public sector, taking on the role of a housing policy advisor for government entities in the Atlanta metro area while also leading the City of Atlanta Housing Commission, an undertaking he has pursued since 2018.