Regional Leaders Launch "Opportunity Rising" Coalition to Expand Economic Mobility

During the event, ARC Executive Director & CEO Anna Roach announced the launch of Opportunity Rising, a regional coalition focused on expanding economic mobility in a region where too many residents still face barriers to getting ahead.

The effort is being led by United Way of Greater Atlanta, the City of Atlanta’s Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and ARC, with a shared commitment to grow a broad regional coalition.

“Metro Atlanta is a major global economic center, with a strong economy and a high quality of life. Yet, too many residents face barriers that make it harder to get ahead,” Roach said. “Opportunity Rising is about agreeing on what success looks like for children, families and communities, and finding ways of working together to achieve it.”

Opportunity Rising focuses on four shared priorities where working together can make a difference:

· Data: Further understand what drives economic mobility, track progress, and set long-term regional goals.

· Policy: Identify and address the systemic barriers that limit opportunity, so the region can speak with one voice.

· Investment: Align and coordinate public, private, and philanthropic dollars around best practice approaches.

· Community Voice: Make the experience of people facing barriers to mobility central to the work from the start.

Opportunity Rising will bring a growing cohort of organizations and leaders together to learn from what’s working, track progress, and identify where greater alignment can help more people and communities move forward.

Housing Costs Are Metro Atlanta’s Top Concern and Biggest Barrier to Getting Ahead, ARC’s 2026 Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey Shows

For the second year in a row, metro Atlanta residents name housing affordability as the region’s top concern, and more than half say housing costs are a major barrier to getting ahead, according to the 2026 Metro Atlanta Speaks survey.

When asked about the biggest problem facing metro Atlanta, 30% of the respondents said housing affordability, followed by traffic (22%), and the economy (16%). It’s the second year in a row that housing affordability topped the list of top concerns.

“Metro Atlanta residents are telling us what stands in the way of getting ahead: housing they can afford, jobs they can reach, and connections across income lines. We must act now to improve economic mobility in this region, so everyone has a fair shot at success,” said ARC Board Chair Andre Dickens, who also serves as Mayor of the City of Atlanta.

ARC released the survey results today at the 2026 State of the Region. Highlights include:

· Housing costs are a big barrier to upward mobility: About half (51%) rated housing costs as a major impediment to economic mobility, followed by lack of job opportunities (35%), transportation costs (28%), care for an aging parent (26%), and public assistance eligibility (26%).

· About 40% of respondents have few friends outside their own income range: Four in 10 respondents have fewer than two friends—or none—whose household income is very different from their own. Research shows that people with fewer financial resources are more likely to move up economically when they have more connections with people who have higher incomes.

· About one in three respondents say good jobs can be hard to find within a reasonable commute: When asked how many good jobs that matched their skills and experience could be found within a reasonable commute, about one in three (32%) said “very few” or “none.” That compares to 15% who said “a lot” and 29% who said “some.”

· More respondents say they are worse off than a year ago: More than a third (35%) said they were feeling worse off this year, up from 29% in 2025. The share who feel better off held steady (27% compared with 28% in 2025).

· Yet residents are less pessimistic about the near future: When asked about the next three to four years, 27% of respondents said they expect things to get better, up from 16% last year. And 37% said they expect conditions to worsen, down from 46%.

Harry West Visionary Leadership Award Presented to Michael Paris

The Atlanta Regional Commission presented the 2026 Harry West Visionary Leadership Award to Michael Paris, President and CEO of the Council for Quality Growth. Paris was recognized for nearly five decades of work at the intersection of development, planning and public policy, and for a regional perspective that looks beyond individual projects and jurisdictions.

Paris began his career in 1978 in commercial real estate, working on major developments including the 1,500-acre Gwinnett Progress Center and the 1,000-acre Barrett mixed-use development. Since becoming head of the Council in 2003, he has helped advance the coalition behind Georgia’s 2015 Transportation Funding Act and efforts to strengthen Community Improvement Districts. He is a graduate of ARC’s Regional Leadership Institute.

“Throughout his distinguished career, Michael Paris has understood that shaping a region is about much more than buildings, roads, or development alone,” said ARC Executive Director and CEO Anna Roach. “It is about thinking beyond individual projects and across jurisdictions. And it is about having the patience, persistence, and vision to keep working toward solutions that will serve our communities for generations to come.

State of the Region Attendee Survey

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Mobility 2055 Survey

What should metro Atlanta’s transportation network prioritize over the next 30 years? ARC wants your input on a draft policy framework that will guide transportation investments through 2055 and shape Mobility 2055, the region’s long-range transportation plan.