As previously reported by AFROTECH, during a 2022 interview on podcast “Earn Your Leisure,” the Atlanta, GA, rapper spoke about his mission to create a real estate development that would provide affordable housing in the area known as Bankhead, where he grew up.
“With gentrification, 95 percent of the people who work in Atlanta can’t afford to live in Atlanta because the natives of the community, they’ve been pushed out by big people who come in with the big developments,” T.I. told hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Milling at the time. “Our grandparents and great-grandparents, the houses they worked hard to own for decades, now they can’t afford to pay the taxes. They lose their houses. Now we are living on the outskirts of the city. That changes a lot of things within the infrastructure of the city — whether that’s politics, it changes the culture.”
He added, “So, we have to make sure that the people who made this city and the culture of this city what it is, still have a place in this city and can afford to stay there. Somebody has to be a part of that charge.”
Now, a year later, his plan for change has officially come to fruition.
On Nov. 14, 2023, Fox 5 Atlanta reports that T.I. was joined by Mayor Andre Dickens and more at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for his first affordable housing complex. Located in the Intrada building on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, the complex consists of 140 units. What’s more, it’s a community effort with a partnership including the city of Atlanta, T.I.’s Briarhouse Holdings, and the Vecino Group.
During the ceremony, T.I. recalled a story from his upbringing in the Atlanta neighborhood.
“I’m going to tell y’all a secret,” he said, per the outlet. “Don’t tell nobody. I got caught stealing from this Kmart. I thought that, you know, just to offset the shame that came with that, it would behoove me to invest in the community by acquiring these properties.”
In addition to the Intrada building, Mayor Dickens shared that for over the past two years, Atlanta has built 3,200 affordable homes. An additional 5,000 are on the way with the overall mission being to create 20,000 affordable housing units.
