Amber C. Saunders, Esq. for The Atlanta Voice
Atlanta has changed.
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You can walk down the streets of Old Fourth Ward, West End or Edgewood and witness new luxury apartments, bougie coffee shops, and the ever-climbing cost of living that rivals New York City, pricing out long-time Black residents.
The City is doing its part with programs aimed at helping Atlantans secure affordable housing, but for many neighborhoods, the damage is done. I knew the worst was yet to come when Bankhead became Hamilton E. Holmes (I refuse to call it that). I miss Old Atlanta, partially because New Atlanta means gentrification.
Although gentrification is frequently blamed on outside investors and developers and on rising property taxes, there’s another, less spoken-about issue at play — the absence of estate planning among Black families.
Gentrification doesn’t simply occur when new people arrive; it occurs when families are made to leave, often because they lack the legal means to defend their property.
Black homeowners with no will or trust inadvertently help developers acquire their homes — at a quarter of their value — and flip them for an easy payday.
The overall rate of gentrification in the United States increased markedly after 2000, with nearly one in five lower-income neighborhoods becoming gentrified versus about one in 11 during the 1990s.
The lack of attention to estate planning in the Black community is a paragon of how the failure to plan can indirectly prolong and exacerbate gentrification, effectively increasing the wealth gap.
Continue to read more at TheAtlantaVoice.com.
