Climate Resilience Is Essential For Community Well-Being And Prosperity In Atlanta
The freedom to live in climate-resilient communities is essential for the economic prosperity and well-being of communities in the City of Atlanta (herein “Atlanta”). However, extreme heat waves, 1 flooding,2 prolonged periods of drought, and other environmental disasters are some of the pressing challenges Atlanta residents and business owners face, amid increases in the cost of living and the threat of displacement3.
Climate change is “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns”4 and can show up as extreme weather events like storms, hurricanes, extreme heat, flooding, tornadoes, and other weather events. In addition to physical damage to homes and property, extreme weather can also increase the energy required for households to maintain safe temperatures5, straining the United States’ energy infrastructure and supply.6 Yet, rising energy costs from high temperatures do not impact all communities in the same way.
Neighborhoods with “heat islands”, or fewer trees and green spaces to absorb excess heat, are more climate burdened, especially those with older homes which tend to have less insulation and inefficient energy systems. This includes Southwest Atlanta, whose majority Black residents contend with rising temperatures and a legacy of redlining and disinvestment7 that has left southern and western Atlanta neighborhoods with inadequate green space and tree coverage.8 Historically Black neighborhoods like English Avenue, Pittsburgh, Cascade, Vine City, Castleberry Hill, West End, and Washington Park have all been reported to be highly vulnerable to extreme heat and risk of flooding.9
Further, data suggests Black households need to spend 43% more of their income on energy bills than White households to cool their homes.10 Black renters living in Southern states disproportionately experience energy insecurity, or the threat of utility disconnection,11 and racial inequities in homeownership mean Black households are more likely to rent12 and have limited ability to invest in energy-efficient systems. These barriers fuel continued extraction of wealth from Black families, and the ramifications include a broadening of the racial wealth divide, wherein the median wealth of Black households continues to trail all other ethnic groups.13
The financial implications of place collide with racial inequities in economic prosperity to limit opportunites for wealth building in Black households. Data from Zillow14 suggests that Black and Hispanic or Latin homeowners face a double jeopardy when it comes to home ownership in comparison to their White peers. Not only are Black and Latin people being priced out of homeownership, when they are able to purchase homes, those homes are more likely to be in neighborhoods at high-risk of exposure to climate-related events (e.g., extreme heat, wildfire, winds). High cost of home ownership paired with exposure to weather-related disasters, hinders wealth building since excess resources will need to be used to pay for higher energy costs and repairs or upgrades to homes. Although homeowners tend to be the primary focus when discussing the implications of weather-related events, effective climate resilience strategy requires prioritizing interventions at all levels of society (e.g., household, neighborhood, local, state, and federal) that address challenges both homeowners and renters face.
Better and more accessible weatherization tools can be a part of the solution to the climate crisis for households.15 Weatherization can protect homes and properties from climate threats while increasing energy efficiency, reducing energy costs,16 and improving health and safety.17 In Atlanta, local weatherization programs have included those which provide energy-efficient home upgrades in high energy-burdened neighborhoods for income-eligible residents,18 and programs that assist homeowners with repairs to central systems.19 Although weatherization support programs are in the right direction, it is imperative that policy changes also acknowledge and redress how historical systems (e.g., redlining) and limited public investment have created and entrenched racial and socioeconomic wealth divides through disparities in home ownership, thereby limiting access to safe and affordable housing in areas with economic opportunity.
In April 2025, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience20 introduced a Climate Resilience Action Plan in an effort to achieve clean energy for all Atlantans by 2035, reach net zero emissions, reduce energy burdens, provide multimodal transportation, and improve access to fresh and affordable foods. The plan’s guiding principles — centering people and emphasis on data-driven, equitable, and just approaches — are foundational to its mission. In keeping with this, we must incorporate community-driven and evidence-based policy strategies to address the climate crisis and provide equitable climate resilience solutions, with a special focus on historically disinvested neighborhoods in Southwest Atlanta, that shoulder the largest climate burdens.
Kindred Futures focuses on community wealth-building strategies that not only prevent the loss of wealth in historically Black neighborhoods, but also provide wealth-building opportunities for the nearly two million Black households in the American South with zero or negative net worth. We believe safeguarding assets, like homes, businesses, and community gathering spaces, and protecting access to safe and affordable places to live is essential to achieving economic prosperity and closing the wealth divide in historically disinvested communities.21 In this report, we gathered community perspectives to measure awareness and knowledge of climate impacts among City of Atlanta residents, to identify weatherization strategies and aid programs that are most helpful and accessible for residents to protect their homes and property from climate threats, and to evaluate the ability of Atlanta households to build wealth in the face of climate impacts. These insights can help other cities as they plan for climate-resilient and equitable communities.
What did we do?
Kindred Futures used a mixed-methods approach to collect community perspectives from City of Atlanta residents during the summer of 2025. Our approach included administering a questionnaire in partnership with Atlanta POV, an initiative of Neighborhood Nexus and Atlanta Civic Circle, which was completed by 385 Atlanta residents. Residents from Southwest Atlanta were prioritized in survey recruitment because of the disproportionate climate and environmental burden they experience. In addition, interviews were conducted with community residents and business owners from Southwest Atlanta. To gain additional contextual and environmental insights, we coupled community perspectives with spatial maps of key economic and environmental data indicators. See the methodology and technical notes for more details on our methods and the demographics of residents included in the survey.
What did we find?
Neighborhood structures matter: When high living costs and environment collide Atlanta residents identify three primary groups as making up the social and economic structure of neighborhoods: community members, who live or work in the area; larger companies and corporations that may or may not be located within the physical boundaries of neighborhoods, but provide services to residents; and civic leaders and public institutions, who make decisions in their community’s and residents’ best interests. While the structure of groups in Atlanta neighborhoods appear relatively similar, Atlanta is financially, racially, and culturally diverse. Historically, boundaries were created and maintained, separating the life opportunities and experiences of North and Southwest Atlanta residents. This legacy persists with North Atlanta residents more likely to be homeowners than Southwest residents. This means, Southwest Atlanta’s predominantly Black communities are more likely than their North Atlanta counterparts to live in rental dwellings and to earn less than the city’s median income per household (Maps 1-4). In fact, in Atlanta, as the percent of Black residents in a census tract rises, the median income of households in a census tract decreases (Figure 1), mirroring a history of economic exclusion. Because financial stability is tied to place and ownership (Map 3-4), and financial instability can lead to challenges in withstanding the impacts of climate change or human and man-made disasters (Map 5), as climate impacts increase, we believe families in Southwest Atlanta will find it especially challenging to build generational wealth.
In addition to limited economic security because jobs often do not allow families to meet their basic needs and plan for a stable financial future, Southwest Atlanta residents shared concerns about larger companies and corporations threatening their personal and community wellbeing. While private entities like utility providers, industrial plants, real estate developers and franchises, and other external stakeholders often operate within the bounds of Southwest Atlanta neighborhoods, their presence can often come at the expense of the larger community’s wellbeing. More focus is needed on strengthening strategies that protect residents and business owners and enhance community wellbeing when private entities seek to operate within neighborhoods. One resident specifically spoke about significant concerns with environmental pollution from private companies in their neighborhood and the associated adverse health effects, like asthma. Experiencing preventable adverse health conditions can make it harder for residents and their families to lead long and thriving lives.
In southern and western areas of Atlanta, climate burden (ecological factors influenced by climate change) and environmental burden (environmental factors that either cause pollution or otherwise negatively affect human health) are relatively higher, leading to a higher combined climate and environmental burden for many Southwest Atlanta residents (Maps 6-8). According to the CDC’s Historical Heat and Health Burden module, Southwest Atlanta is also more vulnerable to heat-related illnesses than other parts of the city, making extreme heat particularly problematic for residents with pre-existing health conditions like asthma, diabetes and heart disease (Maps 9-10).
Amid environmental and climate threats, residents are expected to ensure that payments for their mortgage, rent, utilities, and insurance remain up to date, regardless of their ability to pay. If not, they face debt or lose access to much needed services. In fact, Atlanta residents consistently indicate that the high costs of utility bills are causing them some form of financial distress, with over half of survey respondents (54%) noting they either frequently or occasionally struggled to pay utility bills in the past year (Figure 3). Respondents making under $50,000/year are more likely to report frequent or occasional difficulty paying utility bills in the past month (63%) than those earning over $50,000/ year (45%).
The reality is that residents are juggling financial obligations while managing the physical and emotional weight of economic insecurity and exposure to climate and environmental burdens.
Over seven in 10 Atlanta residents (74%) cited the high cost of living as the most significant barrier to improving their financial situation (Figure 4). This number is high for survey respondents making under $50,000/year (72%) and those making over $50,0000/year (77%). In some instances, property owners in Atlanta with access to financial support offered through agencies like Invest Atlanta can supplement some costs associated with maintaining homes and businesses, reducing the likelihood of debt burden. Nonetheless, ownership is not wholly protective. Homeowners, business owners, and renters remain wary at best, and skeptical or distrustful at worst, that federal, state, and city resources— including provisions through Section-8 for low-income housing sponsorships, Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare, or SNAP— will be available to them when they need it most.
Lack of perceived and tangible support from public institutions for those who need it undermines trust because housing and food security are fundamental to physical health and emotional wellbeing. Residents who struggle to pay utility bills often also face difficulties with food and housing insecurity, as well as lack of access to reliable transportation (Maps 11-14). Given these challenges, it is no surprise that 1 in 3 Atlanta residents believe they will not be able to pay the rent or mortgage in the next two months (Figure 5). Administrative changes at the federal level that reduce access to aid in the form of SNAP, Medicaid/Medicare, and weatherization and energy efficiency programs may worsen trust at local levels and heighten financial burdens if state and local public officials cannot identify ways to fill gaps and supplement resident needs.22,23
Improved access to financial security and stronger public infrastructure before people reach the point of crisis or displacement can help mitigate the legacy of disinvestment in Southwest Atlanta.
Improved access to financial security and stronger public infrastructure before people reach the point of crisis or displacement can help mitigate the legacy of disinvestment in Southwest Atlanta.
Residents know that disinvestment does not just occur on a personal level but within their neighborhoods through public and private actors. Although there is some hope that civic leadership will bring about change, shifts in the perception of community structures and relationships leave others less optimistic because of conflicts of interest between community leaders and private companies.
Broken promises to Atlanta residents, not limited to lack of follow-through on neighborhood requests for necessary infrastructure upgrades, bureaucratic loopholes that delay processes for change, and the absence of egalitarian regulations protecting all residents, support a legacy of racism, income inequality, and redlining. They maintain the status quo that only certain zip codes matter, reinforcing the legacy of redlining along the same boundaries that were established in the mid-20th century (Map 15).
