Affordable Housing Forever
Nonprofits that purchase land, build homes on it and sell them below market rate are giving low-income buyers a chance.
By Michael Friedrich
April 15, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
Credit.Monica Garwood
If anyone knows how gentrification has displaced Black working-class residents in Atlanta, it’s Makeisha Robey, a preschool teacher. During her two decades living in the city, she has watched affordable apartment complexes vanish as new developments arise and wealthier, white residents move in.
After being priced out of renting in a series of neighborhoods, Ms. Robey, a 43-year-old single mother, became determined to buy a house of her own. “Being able to build some kind of equity, being able to have this home base where your family can come visit,” Ms. Robey said, “I wanted that for myself.”
And when folks take a sample, Vaucresson knows the product seals the deal just about every time. “For that little piece of sausage that might cost me ten cents, I’m making an $8 sale,” he says.
The founders of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival knew from the very beginning that food vendors had to be a part of the experience. The first vendor they invited was Vance’s father, Robert “Sonny” Vaucresson, the co-owner of Vaucresson’s Creole Cafe, the first Black-owned business on the city’s famous Bourbon Street. They were meeting at Vaucresson’s to brainstorm about the first festival, which took place in 1970.