According to Rent Cafe\u2019s residential data, that\u2019s above the average rent for an apartment in the United States, which is $1,761.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nSomething has got to change if everyday working citizens in metro Atlanta are going to be able to afford decent living accommodations at an affordable price.<\/p>\n
Marking the gravity of the moment, Larry H. Padilla, chief executive officer of the Decatur Housing Authority, emphasized that the ribbon-cutting was a renewed commitment to the authority\u2019s mission of creating affordable housing.\u00a0 \u201cToday is a celebration, yes. But it must also be a call to action,\u201d he said. Building on his message, Padilla concluded, \u201cLet it be the beginning, not a capstone.\u201d<\/p>\n
When phases one and two of construction are completed, the Village at Legacy complex will have 132 one- and two-bedroom units available for rent. With prices ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 per month, Village at Legacy will have some of the most affordable new housing units in the City of Decatur, according to management staff.\u00a0 That is the purpose of this particular apartment complex, according to Padilla, a native of Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere hasn\u2019t been any new multi-family construction here in quite some time,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the first one that is brand new.\u201d<\/p>\n
Padilla told\u00a0The Atlanta Voice<\/em>\u00a0that the City of Decatur bought the 77-acre property on which Village at Legacy is currently being built in 2017. The project is still months away from being completed in part, but the construction is taking place, and affordable housing will be a reality much sooner than later.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is a wonderful opportunity for the community to have housing units built that embrace the institution of family,\u201d Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo, Jr., the president at Columbia Theological Seminary, said.<\/p>\n
Aloyo described the City of Decatur\u2019s decision to use what he described as prime real estate\u2014Village at Legacy is off Columbia Drive\u2014for affordable housing as \u201ccritical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Village at Legacy manager Candace Evans referred to the apartments as \u201cnecessary and attainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Village at Legacy, Padilla took a moment to use baseball salary disparities as an example of the salary disparities among everyday people in the City of Decatur. He spoke about employees in his office having to drive two hours one way to get to work because they can\u2019t afford to live in the city where they work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is more than just bricks, beams, and blueprints,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cThere is a housing affordability crisis in our country, right here in our backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longtime resident and property caretaker Dorsey Nobles, a local celebrity due to his familiarity with the area, has given the apartments his stamp of approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re helping people,\u201d he said of the affordable units. \u201cWe need to help as many people as we can, but let\u2019s be real about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he thought local home openers in surrounding subdivisions are happy about the affordable housing and the traffic a huge apartment complex can bring, Dorsey said he speaks to residents all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe they are happy that housing is here,\u201d Dorsey said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marking the gravity of the moment, Larry H. Padilla, chief executive officer of the Decatur Housing Authority, emphasized that the ribbon-cutting was a renewed commitment to the authority\u2019s mission of creating affordable housing.\u00a0 \u201cToday is a celebration, yes. But it must also be a call to action,\u201d he said. Building on his message, Padilla concluded, \u201cLet it be the beginning, not a capstone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[725,728],"tags":[363,762,764,765,768,759,735,760,767,763,766,30,761],"class_list":["post-12831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-chevrolet-dtu","category-2025-grace-barlow","tag-affordable-housing","tag-candace-evans","tag-city-of-decatur","tag-columbia-theological-seminary","tag-decatur-housing-authority","tag-donnel-suggs","tag-grace-barlow","tag-housing-affordability-crisis","tag-larry-h-padilla","tag-prime-real-estate","tag-rev-dr-victor-aolyo-jr","tag-the-atlanta-voice","tag-village-at-legacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12833,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12831\/revisions\/12833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nnpa.org\/chevydtu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}