A recent and unanimous approval by the Atlanta City Council of the final $40 million of the Housing Opportunity Bond activates an affordable housing collaboration amongst formidable forces—The Atlanta Housing Authority, the City of Atlanta and Invest Atlanta. The approval to issue $40 million in Housing Opportunity Bonds will help to fund important initiatives including homeowner renovations, multifamily developer loans, down payment assistance, nonprofit development loans and land assemblage for affordable and workforce housing development.

"The 2017 housing opportunity bond program is especially important as it directly addresses the crisis-level, shrinking affordable housing inventory and options for Atlanta's working families," states Catherine Buell, president and CEO of Atlanta Housing Authority. "Leveraging the unique capabilities of AHA to facilitate this transaction made the decision to support a no-brainer."

The Atlanta Housing Authority's Atlanta Housing Opportunity Inc., a designated housing corporation and borrower of the funds, serves as the program manager and will contract with Invest Atlanta for program implementation. The City of Atlanta will make the debt service payments on the bonds.

The bond issue is scheduled to close in May and funds will be available early summer.