Forest Cove residents want Atlanta leaders to speed up relocation effort

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) – On Monday morning, 5 individuals had been shot outdoors the Forest Cove Flats in southeast Atlanta.

“I’ve to get up and see crime scene tape. I’m bored with that,” mentioned Lolita Evans, who has lived at Forest Cove for 8 years.

Evans hopes the town’s relocation effort – to maneuver all residents out – will pace up after the shootings.

“They’re attempting to maneuver us however they’re not transferring quick sufficient,” mentioned Evans, outdoors her unit on Monday.

On June 1, the town of Atlanta launched an effort to relocate the residents of the condemned advanced.

“It’s deteriorating by the day and we simply need to ensure that we act with a way of urgency to get individuals out of these situations,” mentioned Jason Winston, Atlanta Metropolis Councilmember.

To date, the town has relocated 21 households from the federally-subsidized advanced, in accordance with Winston.

“It’s beneath federal jurisdiction. And so we might have taken a straightforward method which is to show a blind eye which so many officers have completed through the years, nevertheless it was a promise I made to most of the constituents of mine,” mentioned Winston, who visited the positioning final week.

That leaves greater than 100 households, like Evans’, nonetheless ready to maneuver.

“My youngsters preserve asking me, the place we going to high school at. I’ve no reply for them as a result of I don’t know the place we’re going to be. And it shouldn’t be like that,” mentioned Evans.

Atlanta Public Colleges closed Thomasville Heights Elementary College, which sits throughout the road from the house advanced, on the finish of the 2021-2022 college yr as a result of nearly all of the coed physique lived at Forest Cove.

Andre Dickens, the mayor of Atlanta, has visited the advanced twice within the final week attempting to guarantee residents the town is working to search out sufficient housing.

The advanced is federally-subsidized housing. Earlier this yr, Dickens introduced plans to allocate roughly $9 million to assist cowl the prices of relocating the entire residents whereas the advanced is renovated.

Metropolis leaders informed CBS46 the expectation is the owner, Millenia Firms, will reimburse the town.

The purpose is to maneuver all households with school-aged kids to new housing by the beginning of the varsity yr, in accordance with a spokesperson for the Group Basis for Higher Atlanta – a corporation serving to the town with the relocation effort.

Atlanta Public Colleges begins lessons on August 1.

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