Explore how Southwest Atlanta residents remain resilient while navigating everyday life amid a climate crisis, and how “it’s so much bigger than light bulbs” as residents struggle with the rising cost of housing and utilities. Concerns over Atlanta’s extreme heat and flooding are growing, and as one resident puts it, “They say scattered showers. It was a monsoon.”
The freedom to live in climate-resilient communities is essential for the economic prosperity of residents in Atlanta. Bold and climate-resilient strategies will need to incorporate solutions addressing historical systems and current public policies that have created and entrenched racial and socioeconomic wealth divides and inhibited many from accessing safe and affordable housing. As homeowners bear the burden of weatherizing their homes to combat extreme weather, renters are struggling to find safe and affordable housing; and for both renters and homeowners alike, utility costs are a growing barrier to saving for a brighter future.
Read on for steps stakeholders can take to help communities safeguard assets and ensure our beloved community sees a brighter tomorrow.
- Most City of Atlanta residents surveyed (69%) shared concern over potential climate impacts to their homes and property. These concerns served as the backdrop to everyday challenges such as paying for utilities, the high cost of living, and wealth building.
- When faced with climate, environmental, and everyday financial challenges, residents chose collective action and resilience. Aid programs, guaranteed energy bill savings, and cash rebates up front were some of the more popular ways residents said could help them protect their homes and weather the growing climate crisis.
- Residents, community advocates, and policy and decision-makers in the City of Atlanta must call for more substantial support for affordable, safe, and sustainable housing. Actions that policy and decision-makers can take include expanding home weatherization programs, strengthening assistance for utility costs, enforcing renter protections, and mitigating harmful environmental exposures for residents who live near industrial sites. Exploration of community-centered utility models that reinvest in neighborhoods would usher in bold and timely reform in utility ownership, operation, and regulation, to advance energy equity.
