Dickens seeks $50 million in matching pledges for neighborhood investments

The financial commitment is contingent on the city’s ability to match that funding with another $50 million in philanthropic donations, according to the letter.

Now Dickens is calling on other Atlanta businesses and philanthropic groups to step up and pitch in.

“Our vision is a cross-sector approach to ensure that every Atlanta neighborhood is a place where our children and families can thrive,” Dickens said in the letter, which was also signed by the president of the Blank Foundation and the executive director of Atlanta Committee for Progress.

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

Credit: Estela Muñoz/AJC

They said the joint effort is a “call to action for every Atlanta business, funder, local and regional partner to raise a combined $50 million,” and invited others to take part in what they called a national model for neighborhood reinvestment.

The private funding would go toward workforce development, early childhood education and affordable housing. Dickens has pitched his plan as a way to tackle Atlanta’s growing wealth divide by investing in historically underserved communities on the city’s Southside and Westside.

Dickens has pitched his plan as a way to put an end to what he describes as Atlanta’s “tale of two cities.”

“It took decades of doing, so it’s going to take intentionality to undo it,” Dickens said in May.

To fund it, a majority of council members voted in June to extend six of Atlanta’s eight Tax Allocation Districts for the next 30 years.

The plan is to bond against future property tax growth and use that money to jump-start development within those boundaries.

Critics have argued the money could be put to better use in the city’s general fund, where there are no geographic restrictions limiting where it can be spent.

The mayor’s proposal still faces some headwinds.

Before approving the plan, City Council members included an amendment requiring the buy-in of at least one local taxing partner — either the Atlanta Board of Education or the Fulton County Commission — if the city is to bond against its future tax increment.

Some school board members have expressed reservations about forgoing billions of dollars in revenue over the next three decades, and a majority of commissioners voted last month to opt out of the tax extension plan for now.

In a letter dated Monday, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Bryan Johnson said schools benefit from investments in the people, families and neighborhoods that surround them.

Students are better off when investments are made in meaningful workforce development, and families and staff will benefit from affordable, stable housing in their communities, he wrote.

“Atlanta Public Schools welcomes with open arms corporate, philanthropic and civic partnerships that strengthen our schools while helping create the conditions in which Atlanta’s children and families can thrive,” Johnson said in the letter.