HISTORIC DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
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Mission Statement
The Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC) was founded in 1980 by Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.; Christine King Farris, sister of Dr. King; and community advocate and former Delta Airlines Executive John Cox. Its purpose four decades ago remains the same today – to protect the residential assets surrounding the historic site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth site on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia.
About This Cause
As a pioneer of urban revitalization, HDDC has a commitment to creating inclusive and equitable communities. In fact, every investment action of the HDDC is designed around three central tenets to support an equitable community where generations of African Americans and other minorities can have the opportunity to live vibrant lives as contributors and stakeholders across sectors. Those tenets include: • Non-displacement – maintaining neighborhood diversity by intervening and improving life opportunities for existing residents; • Historic Preservation – retaining the historic fabric and cultural character of the existing community; and • Sustainability – linking mixed-income, mixed-use development to sustainable economic growth, thereby creating an environment where families can be self-sufficient. In partnership with Bank of America, Enterprise Foundation, the City of Atlanta, Wachovia Bank and others, HDDC has built or renovated over 125 single-family homes. HDDC developed Studioplex on Auburn, an $18.5 million mixed-use, live-work arts complex of 124 residential, retail and studio units; 610 Irwin Street., a six-unit affordable housing complex; Auburn-Glenn Apartments which provide 271 lofts and one to three bedroom apartments with a 75% set aside for low and moderate-income families; and Henderson Place Apartments on Irwin Street, which provides 58 units serving very low - income residents; and the 45 unit Dynamic Metals Lofts complex. Dr. Martin L. King Jr.’s mother city of Atlanta, Georgia sits on the precipice of an affordable housing crisis and the Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC) recognizes its role in averting this crisis to protect the historic fabric of the community and the equitable participation of its residents in its economic revitalization. HDDC is Atlanta’s oldest surviving community development corporation and is the most equipped entity to stand up for this community’s future. Our role has many layers to include the revitalization of Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward’s arts and culture community; small business enterprise development; commercial growth opportunities; and the preservation of affordable and sustainable housing to carry new generations forward. The 2019-2022 Strategic Plan includes several goals: ensuring that our properties are sites for community building, honoring our rich history, and celebrating arts and culture; continuing with redevelopment projects that promote growth and support long-term affordability; elevating our role as a thought leader through equitable development advocacy; and becoming a high-performing organization. We are, therefore, engaging in a resource development campaign that not only supports our revitalization efforts, but also sustains operations and allows us to achieve our staff development growth plan. A pressing organizational need is the development and execution of a resource development campaign to support general operating expenses. Raising funds to support staff capacity and program engagement is critical in order to effectively complete several major and important revitalization projects. HDDC’s fundraising efforts have reached a low point in the years post the 2007-2008 economic downturn, which had resoundingly negative effects on the housing market. In September 2019, after completing a new strategic plan that extends through 2022, a resource development consultant was hired to focus on the development and execution of a robust fundraising effort to bring back vital private donations to our organization. Over the next few years we will be embarking upon a fundraising efforts to secure $75 million in investment gifts to realize a major revitalization plan. The end result will be more affordable housing, small business development, workforce development and quality of life initiatives for the community we serve. We are seeking philanthropic partners in this critical phase or our work to help displaced residents return to the homes that have been in their families for generations and to attract new residents to the area. As an organization devoted to revitalizing and supporting our community, we rely on the expert guidance, participation and support of those who live and work in the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic District. To ensure that the voices of our community members are heard, we created the HDDC’s Community Engagement Committee. This resident led, volunteer initiative advises the HDDC on community activities and works to build understanding, acceptance and integration among such a diverse community. The committee seeks to promote and implement Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s philosophy of The Beloved Community, where individuals look past perceived differences in race, income and tenure to integrate under the commonalities and interdependence they share as human beings. In a sermon entitled “Being a Good Neighbor,” Dr. King noted that, “The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers.” The Community Engagement Committee engenders this spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood that results in genuine inter-group and inter-personal living based on compassion and altruism. The historic community we serve is part of Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward and is the center of a gentrification movement that is squeezing low-income African Americans out of the area as developers acquire historic properties that are then demolished, displace the tenants, and create new housing at prices over $500,000. In 2018, the average sale price of an Old Fourth Ward home was $660,000, a 138% increase. from the $280,000 average sale price in 2013. A May 2019 article in the AJC with the headline “Atlanta’s gentrification wave washes over historic Old Fourth Ward,” paints a picture of the housing equity and inclusion crisis happening in the neighborhood HDDC is committed to protecting. Our work is to support long-time residents like Sandra Gordon who purchased a home in the community in 1998 with a monthly mortgage of $250. Today, she struggles to pay a mortgage of $604 per month on a monthly fixed income of $870. “If things keep going the way they are going, I am going to have to sell and move somewhere else,” said Gordon, who also takes care of an adult nephew and a 5-year-old niece she calls Love Bug. “I was born here, and I want to stay, but I might not have any other choice,” Ms. Gordon told the AJC. One reason for the sea change is the Atlanta Beltline, the former railway corridor converted into a walking and biking trail in 2012. In addition to boutiques, restaurants and craft breweries, city officials promised affordable housing. The former happened. The latter hasn’t. In Atlanta, and elsewhere in the United States, gentrification is often about wealthy whites displacing poor blacks. Nowhere is that dynamic playing out more than in the city’s Old Fourth Ward. (AJC Article). There are about 12,000 residents in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward that encompasses the Historic District. The population density is 66% higher than other areas of the city of Atlanta. Of the 7,000 housing units, 25% were built before 1939 and about 30% were built after 2009. The median age of the residents is 35. About 40% of residents have children under the age of 18 and the male and female ratio is 50/50. About 20% of the residents or 2,400 live below poverty. Currently, as a result of an influx of white residents to the area, blacks represent 46% and whites represent 46%. Asians represent the next highest ethnic community at 6%. (data collected from https://www.areavibes.com/atlanta-ga/old+fourth+ward/demographics/).