Matt Reynolds

1 week ago | ajc.com | Matt Reynolds

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session at the Georgia State Capitol, more than 100 housing-related bills were on the agenda, mirroring the large scale of the Peach State’s housing crisis. Fewer than 10 housing bills survived Crossover Day on March 6 — a deadline marking whether bills move from the House to the Senate in the Georgia General Assembly or, in a two-year session, are left in limbo until 2026.

3 weeks ago | ajc.com | Matt Reynolds

Eight Georgia affordable apartment complexes have sued national property manager RPM Living in separate lawsuits, alleging the company mismanaged their investor-owned Section 8 properties and jeopardized HUD contracts, leading to $34 million in losses.

3 weeks ago | ajc.com | Matt Reynolds

At adramatic 2023news conference in Atlanta City Hall, former Forest Cove resident Felicia Morris, known as “Ms. Peaches,” stood alongside Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and civil rights attorney Ben Crump, sharing her experiences at the dilapidated apartment complex in southeast Atlanta where she lived for decades. Through tears she described years of living with rats, mildew, tainted tap water and crumbling walls. Over time, she said, residents’ cries for help went unanswered.

3 weeks ago | ajc.com | Matt Reynolds

The Fulton County Medical Examiner released Cornelius Taylor’s autopsy report Wednesday, finding blunt force trauma to his abdomen and pelvis and ruling his death was accidental. Taylor, a homeless man living in the Old Wheat Street encampment, died Jan. 16 after an Atlanta Department of Public Works construction vehicle struck him while clearing tents and other debris from the area.

4 weeks ago | ajc.com | Matt Reynolds

A proposed law making it far easier for extended-stay hotel operators to quickly remove residents has been folded into the Georgia Anti-Squatters Act, a new statehouse bill that prescribes harsher penalties for people squatting in homes or on private property they do not own. Rep. Devan Seabaugh (R-Marietta) was behind last year’s Squatter Reform Act, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law in May. Seabaugh said Monday that the new bill was conceived to close “loopholes” in last year’s legislation.