ATLANTA — New research from Georgia State University indicates that rent paid in some of Atlanta’s lower-income neighborhoods is helping build wealth in some of the city’s wealthiest communities.
The study found that absentee owners of more than 2,300 properties in lower-income, predominantly Black Atlanta neighborhoods live just a few miles away in wealthier ZIP codes, including Buckhead.
Research also found that rent paid on Atlanta’s West Side is predominantly going to landlords who live in Buckhead and Midtown.
“As much as folks in Buckhead that were leading this succession movement like to claim that Buckhead is contributing to all of this wealth and resources to the rest of the city and not getting their fair share back, it’s actually the rent money that flows from those Black neighborhoods to Buckhead is part of what creates that wealth,” study co-author Dr. Taylor Shelton said.
Shelton said property owners who do not live in the communities where they own property are often less invested in those neighborhoods.
“They don’t necessarily care what happens as long as that bottom line doesn’t change and that certainly we know isn’t the case for people that actually live in these communities,” Shelton said.
The study also found that absentee landlords who own properties in wealthier neighborhoods typically live outside metro Atlanta or outside Georgia altogether.
“There’s an element of the zero-sum game here and the gains that some people make come at other people’s expense,” Shelton said.
Shelton said affluent communities would not have become what they are today without the flow of wealth from lower-income neighborhoods.
“Without that kind of flow of wealth many of these affluent white communities would never have become what they are today,” Shelton said.
“Without the kind of poverty and the extraction of rent and other forms of value from predominantly Black and working class neighborhoods you wouldn’t ever get the kind of wealth and affluence that we see in a lot of Atlanta’s predominantly white communities on the north and east sides,” he added.
Researchers noted it can be difficult to determine who owns some rental properties because many are listed under limited liability companies or limited partnerships, making it harder for tenants to know who owns the property where they live.
The issue of absentee landlords was recently addressed by the Georgia legislature. House Bill 399, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, requires out-of-state owners of 25 or more single-family rental properties to maintain in-state staff for tenant maintenance issues.
WSB Radio’s Veronica Waters contributed to this story.