I Blame Atlanta’s Housing Crisis for the Loss of My Persian Rug
I found my roommate Hannah on the Facebook group Atlanta Housing Search weeks before I was due to move out of my apartment. She, too, was looking for a place to live that was affordable, well-located, and allowed for cats, so we connected and together began the hunt for an apartment. Fast forward six months, and she is ignoring my messages, refusing to pay her share of utilities, and has all but abandoned her two cats.
“I spoke to the leasing office again today and either you can sign this agreement and let me go and work on finding another roommate, or we can all have our credit and rental histories impacted,” reads the message she sent me via Facebook Messenger when I told her that I would not be signing her off the lease (and thus no longer hold her liable for half of the rent) until I had found a suitable replacement to live with me.
I never wanted a roommate, but at $1,315 for a tiny two bedroom (one bathroom) on Memorial Drive between East Atlanta Village and Kirkwood, it was necessary. Hannah would leave dirty shoe-prints on rugs, leave dishes in the sink for weeks on end, blast her television until the early hours of the morning, and to my horror, leave cat poop on the floor of her bedroom. The breaking point for our relationship as both roommates and friends however, was when she threw out an authentic Persian Tabriz carpet my parents had bought me when my father completed his cancer treatment.
Georgia has the lowest homeownership rate in the Southeast at 6%, and is one of the lowest in the United States, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. And in Georgia, between 2012 and 2016, “roughly 1.3 million households were comprised of renters — representing 37% of the state’s population at that time. From 2011 to 2018, the average sale price for a single family home has jumped from $162,220 to $301,000: an stark increase of 85.5%. By comparison, disposable income increased by a mere 14.4% from 2011 to 2016.”
A recent article from The New Republic states that, “Today, there is not a single county in the United States where someone making minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment.” The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual Out of Reach report depicts that the “housing wage” needed to pay for a modest two-bedroom unit is $21.27 an hour in Georgia. In comparison, the state’s minimum wage is a meagre $5.15 an hour (employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act must pay the $7.25 federal minimum wage, according to Paycor), and a fresh college graduate makes approximately $19 an hour on average, per information from ZipRecruiter—meaning it is literally impossible for a percentage of the population to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment.
According to Atlanta magazine, from May 2013 until May 2019, the average rent for a one-bedroom rental unit has gone up from just over $1,100 per month to over $1,600 per month, for an increase of more than 45% (which even after calculating for inflation, is still a staggering 37%). In some neighborhoods, such as the West End and Reynoldstown, median rents have increased by more than 60% since 2013. The magazine makes the point that “Ever since Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms came into office, the average rent citywide has increased by about 12%.” The affordable housing crisis in Atlanta is in its seventh year and shows no signs of slowing down.
Brandon Ailey is one of the fortunate ones. After having inherited his parents’ 10th Street condo — at 1,464 square feet and two-stories plus a view that overlooks Piedmont Park, he rents it out at the low, low price of $3,100/month — it’s safe to say his income won’t be lacking for a while, perhaps even for the rest of his life. The monthly rent of his Tucker studio pales in comparison at $610, and his low-maintenance lifestyle (“I meal prep and never go out,” laughs Ailey) means the profits from the Piedmont property is more than enough to cover his regular expenses and the upkeep of the house, with a hefty leftover.
“Honestly the Piedmont property is the only reason I’m still afloat,” confides Ailey. “It’s been hard keeping a job, probably because I’m scum,” he continues, “but the money from the condo covers my rent, food, and gas money, really.” “Plus,” he adds, “I’ve never needed a roommate because of it.”
More than 75% of low-income renters in the city spend more than 30% of their income on rent, and a significant portion pay more than half their income on rent. Atlanta ranks fifth out of 70 large US cities in the rate of eviction notices per rental homes.
Yessica Prado owns several properties around Atlanta, mostly in areas that are traditionally known to be lower-income. “I bought most of the homes in the early 2000s and they were all under $200,000,” Prado says. “I have two in the West End, one in Panthersville, and one in Belvedere Park. The West End ones rent for over $2,000.”
One would have been hard pressed to find a house that rented for over $1,000 in these neighborhoods less than a decade ago, but as home values have skyrocketed (especially in areas close to and around the Beltline—Atlanta’s expanding walking/biking/scootering trail that appears as the precursor to a gentrifying neighborhood) so has the commonality of large, designer-style, and contrasting to what one assumes of the area, expensive (read:unaffordable for one person), family homes in these areas. It is a stark contrast, seeing boarded-up and run down houses next to modern and sleek residences.
Atlanta House Search is one of dozens of social media-based roommate finders. Some rely on websites like Craigslist and Nextdoor, while others seek out services like Roomster. The vast majority end up sharing a living space with a stranger, and often, the only factor that separates one from residing with a “normal” person versus a potential serial killer is gut feeling—and maybe a little bit of social media stalking.
Right now, I’m at an impasse with Hannah. She wants to move out, but I simply can’t afford to cover rent by myself. I would love to live alone, but as an college student with no source of income, the impossibility of doing so is my reality. With housing and rental prices in Atlanta and its surrounding neighborhoods picking up at staggeringly high rates, finding a home comes at the price of living with someone who just might throw away your Persian rug.
