Policy Recommendations and Conclusion for a Brighter Tommorow in Atlanta
An effective climate resilience strategy requires interventions at all levels of society (e.g., household, neighborhood, local, state, federal); needs to be inclusive of residents who are renters; and requires decision-makers to acknowledge and address both historical systems and current public policies to create affordable, reliable, and climate-resilient energy solutions for Black, low-wealth, and frontline communities most at risk.
Data from City of Atlanta resident interviews and survey responses call for actions that:
- Provide property owners with the resources and tools to weatherize and maintain their homes through continued support of home weatherization programs.
- Strengthen supports to mitigate high utility costs for Atlanta residents with low wealth by expanding the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
- Ensure regulations are in place to mitigate environmental harms, especially for residents living near industrial sites.
- Advance public and community-controlled utility models for energy equity that collectively center and reinvest back in communities.
- Reinforce renter protections and options for safe and affordable housing by enforcing tenant protections ratified under Georgia HB 404 and HB 346.
Even still, residents remain resilient and find new ways to care for themselves, their families, and each other. Although generational shifts have left some residents feeling more isolated, Southwest Atlanta communities find ways to engage with and invest in their neighborhoods and other residents by providing tangible and intangible support, maintaining a sense of resourcefulness by adapting, and seeking new information.
While cost is the largest barrier (56%) to participating in a weatherization program (Figure 12), Atlanta residents frequently cite a lack of information about aid programs, suggesting a need for better and more coordinated marketing of existing programs towards populations who can benefit the most. This may be especially true for senior residents who are wary of strangers because of increased solicitation by fraudulent actors. Even residents who participate in weatherization programs say that it is difficult to understand what is available to them and to differentiate between the types of services they need most as they manage living costs for their households.
Recommendation 1:
Continue investing in home weatherization programs
Since 1976, the United States’ Department of Energy has appropriated funds to assist low-income families in increasing the energy efficiency of their homes. These funds, allocated to states based on the following criteria, have helped eligible families save nearly $372 on average each year.25
Allocation criteria:
- Low-Income Population Factor. The population factor is the share of the nation’s low-income households in each Grantee expressed as a percentage of all U.S. low-income households.
- Climate Factor. The climate factor is obtained from the heating and cooling degrees for each Grantee, treating the energy needed for heating and cooling proportionately.
- Residential Energy Expenditures Factor. The residential energy expenditure factor is an approximation of the financial burden that energy use places on low-income households. The approximation is necessary because of the lack of state-specific data on residential energy expenditures by low-income households.26
Georgia last received $84 million to support eligible citizens whose “household income [does not] exceed 200% of the federal poverty level.” Through the Weatherized Assistance Program (WAP), eligible households can receive assistance with the following energy-saving home installations:
- Air and duct sealing,
- Wall, floor, and attic insulation
- Heating, ventilation and air conditioning system improvements
- Energy efficiency improvements in lighting
- Hot water tank and pipe insulation
- Water conversation devices.
Recent federal financial decommitments27 from the WAP and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)28 will require states to find alternative solutions to bridge the funding gap. One potential opportunity for increased impact could be to explore pathways that would expand the income eligibility requirements to include households whose incomes exceed 200% of the federal poverty line. While state and local officials work to secure additional funding streams, the following measures could be considered:
- State and local entities could consider providing corporate incentives to climate-oriented businesses that also commit to utilizing additional profits to invest in a state-financed weatherization program.
- State and local entities could levy additional regulations on corporations that disproportionately add waste to the environment. The increased revenue from these profits could be earmarked to provide assistance to residents.
- State and local entities could allow additional tax incentives to contractors and small businesses that commit to providing weatherization services to families in households with low incomes.
These considerations, in addition to other existing measures, could help decision-makers fill future gaps and weather a potential decrease in federal financial support.
Recommendation 2: Expand provisions under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
While residents differed in their relative utility cost burdens, all highlighted making choices to limit their energy use to avoid spending more money on utilities. One of the renters noted that they rarely utilized the air conditioner in their unit,
“I seldom run my air conditioner because, like I said, it’s a lot of trees around. And where I’m at, it seems like it’s always…. cooler there. When my niece, my grandson came home, they’ll say, ‘Grandmama, don’t you want the air on?’ And I tell them, I said, ‘If it’s too hot in here for you, you can turn the air on.’
Although the increased temperature in her unit did not bother the renter in this discussion, other family members were impacted. They note later in the conversation that they were spending approximately nearly 30% of their monthly income on utilities, which presents difficulties for them as a senior citizen with a fixed and limited Social Security allotment. Other renters and homeowners opted for a fixed energy usage plan to manage energy costs. Currently, there are several federal and public sector initiatives available to individuals and families to alleviate the financial burden of rising energy costs related to climate change. Federally, LIHEAP,29 in place since 1981, “[…] provides federally-funded assistance to reduce the costs associated with home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization, and minor energyrelated home repairs.” Through LIHEAP, the federal government appropriated upwards of $3 billion to all states and territories to provide energy-related assistance to eligible households. Each state then determines the eligibility criteria and application guidelines. Georgia’s eligibility criteria30 are as follows:
- Applicants must be U.S. citizens or legally admitted immigrants.
- Applicants’ total gross annual household income needs to be at or below 60% of the state’s median income.
- The primary applicant must have full responsibility for paying the cost of energy bills for the primary home heating source.
Georgia provides these funds on a first-come basis, and citizens over the age of 65 who meet the eligibility criteria, are eligible to apply for assistance 30 days before eligible residents below the age of 65 can apply.
LIHEAP’s future remains in flux as recent federal cuts to the program31 have significantly reduced the staff responsible for administering the program and shifted the financial commitments to the states. While recent Congressional budget reconciliation proposals32 have appropriated more funds to safeguard the programs, following extensive advocacy efforts. LIHEAP advocates should work diligently to ensure that Georgia policymakers continue to support the program and expand the eligibility criteria to be more inclusive of households whose median incomes fall above the eligibility requirements, as they could still be burdened by the costs of home weatherization.
Recommendation 3: Increase regulations to mitigate environmental harms
Residents raised concerns about their proximity to environmentally hazardous industrial sites in interviews. At present, tenants and homeowners in Georgia who live in or near areas that are environmentally compromised by manufacturing plants, data centers, superfund sites often do not have access to readily available financial and legal resources. This gap leaves them unable to physically ensure that their dwellings are equipped to withstand environmental hazards and unable to require property owners (in the case of renters) and businesses and corporations (in the case of property owners) to make environmentally conscious decisions to mitigate harms. Nationally, environmental protection measures have been scaled back significantly in response to the current administration’s efforts to deregulate federal oversight over industry. Thus, the decision to enact climate-conscious policies is left to state and local policymakers.
During the 2023-2024 legislative session, Georgia lawmakers introduced HB 1263, or the Georgia Environmental Justice Act, aimed at mitigating environmental and climate impacts while also establishing regulations.
The most pertinent portion of the proposed legislation would:
- Require all state entities to consider and report on environmental justice concerns prior to taking certain state actions.
- Create the Environmental Justice Commission.
- Mandate that governmental agencies [consider] the disproportionate effect of environmental hazards on people of color or people from low-income families in implementing certain environmental policies.
- Prohibit an individual’s exclusion from “any state-funded program or activity because of race, color, or national origin.”33
While this bill has yet to receive full support from the general assembly, some of the provisions outlined could help relieve the environmental concerns outlined by city residents in our discussions.
Recommendation 4: Advance public and community-controlled utility models for energy equity
Building climate resilience in Atlanta requires not only weatherization and affordability programs but also systemic reforms to how utilities are owned, operated, and regulated. Investor-owned utilities (IOUs) often prioritize shareholder profit, resulting in higher costs and underinvestment in low-wealth and historically-disinvested Black communities. Increasing regulation for IOUs would help mitigate these negative externalities. Additionlly, public and cooperative ownership models are better positioned to reinvest revenue into community needs, expand renewable generation, and center residents’ lived experiences in decision-making.
We recommend that Atlanta and Georgia policymakers pursue a twopronged strategy:
- Pilot community energy democracy projects. Establish funding streams and regulatory support for community solar, microgrids, and cooperatively owned utilities in Southwest Atlanta and other climateburdened neighborhoods. These pilots should require meaningful resident participation in governance, with protections to ensure lowincome renters and homeowners share in the cost savings.
- Advance public utility reforms. Georgia should create pathways for municipal or state-owned utilities to directly build and manage renewable energy projects, reinvest surplus revenues into weatherization and affordability programs, and eliminate the structural conflict between profit and public good.
Together, these strategies would complement existing weatherization and energy assistance efforts in Atlanta, and address the systemic inequities that precipitate energy insecurity. Public and community-controlled models can transform electricity from a commodity into a public good, ensuring affordable, reliable, and climate-resilient energy for Black, lowwealth, and frontline communities most at risk.
Recommendation 5: Enforce tenant protections ratified under Georgia HB 404, and HB 346:’
Mandates aimed at expanding tenants’ rights in Georgia have been ratified by the General Assembly. Indeed, House Bill 346,34 ratified during the 2019 legislative session:
- Makes it unlawful for a landlord to discriminatorily increase a tenant’s rent, decrease a tenant’s services, or to threaten to bring an action against a tenant because the landlord is retaliating against the tenant (National Low-Income Housing Coalition).
And House Bill 40435, ratified with bipartisan support during the 2024 legislative session, established the following:
- Landlord’s duties to uphold a habitable residence, as well as their duties to make necessary repairs and improvements.
- Caps on security deposit fees at two-months’ rent.
- A mandate that landlords or property owners provide a tenant, in writing, of intent to file an eviction and three business days to cure infractions levied against a tenant for nonrepayment of rent.
The City of Mableton provides one example of how they have worked to expand tenant protections:
On Sept. 11, 2025, following long-standing complaints from tenants36 regarding substandard housing conditions related to mold and substandard living conditions related to rat and roach infestations in their homes, the Mableton City Council passed their own ordinance to bolster tenant protections beyond those outlined in HB 404. According to the City of Mableton, the Safe and Healthy Housing Ordinance37 establishes the following:
- Legally enforceable housing standards requiring all rental units to be free from mold, infestation, structural hazards, and unsafe utilities.
- Clear definitions of visible mold and mandated remediation based on Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development guidelines.
- An implied legal standard of habitability, ensuring all rental units meet minimum safety, health, and sanitation standards.
- Expanded enforcement authority allowing the City of Mableton to cite violations, order corrective action, and, if necessary, conduct emergency remediation and place liens on noncompliant properties.
Mableton Mayor Michael Owens highlighted the heightened sense of urgency that necessitated this ordinance citing that HB 404, while well-intentioned, leaves some gaps. He notes, We know that it [HB 404] fell short. It did not define what habitable meant. [This] is filling that gap.”38
Owens’ action to address HB 404’s gaps is consistent with our recommendation. The expanded tenant protections ratified under House Bills 346 and 404, respectively, which grant tenants increased power in negotiations with property owners are commendable. However, reflections from tenants in our interviews suggest that these laws may need increased enforcement. Currently, state preemption prevents local governments from instituting tenant protection rights. Relinquishing that right and allowing tenant protections at the local or neighborhood level could help mitigate some of the implementation gaps.
Conclusion
A community-driven and evidence-based policy approach is needed to address the climate crisis and provide equitable climate resilience solutions, with a special focus on historically disinvested neighborhoods that are shouldering the largest climate burdens. Our Beloved Community, Brighter Tomorrow initiative is a call to action for the City of Atlanta and cities across the U.S., particularly in the South, where there are communities and populations threatened by the effects of climate change. Communities that have been shouldering the brunt of climate and environmental impacts for decades are often the same ones most impacted by historical and structural systems that set and maintain a status quo of economic disadvantage. Kindred Futures believes in the resilience of the families in these communities and knows that a brighter future is possible. We also believe in helping the nearly two million Black households in the Deep South with zero or negative net worth on a path to build collective wealth. To foster resilient and thriving communities, it is critical to invest in the city’s residents and local businesses in the most climate-burdened and economically distressed areas of the city. We support the expansion and strengthening of existing programs to help residents maintain, repair, and weatherize their homes; to make efforts to fix the rising housing and utility costs that extract wealth from families; and to implement environmental protections to help keep families and their investments safe. And finally, we must step forward and explore innovative and bold ways to reinvest in neighborhoods and advance energy equity through community-centered and cooperative models. A brighter tomorrow awaits us.
Renters and low-income residents rely on federal programs like Social Security or SNAP to supplement resources. However, this kind of aid can be limited or fails to meet renters’ needs because of conservative and dated threshold barriers in income. To address this, renters and low-income residents report getting help from loved ones or family members to cover living expenses or reaching out to churches to obtain food. Additional municipal or local support might help provide a much-needed stopgap for residents in need. Even still, property owners, homeowners, and renters face a cost of living crisis that puts displacement at the forefront of their worries.
Atlanta residents responded that they are in favor of guaranteed monthly savings on energy bills (62%) and upfront cash rebates (43%) to alleviate the financial burden of weatherization. (Figures 13 and 14). Such support would enable property owners to invest more in weatherization despite limitations caused by competing expenses. For instance, while city-funded grants offer reprieve, owners still must take on major upfront costs, be they loans or out of pocket payments. Procedural issues can prevent property owners from getting the full benefit of aid. For example, rebates can become inaccessible when requirements are unclear, such as what kinds of information should be submitted and who needs to submit it.
