Twenty-one tenants living with mental illness face eviction after new management took over their southwest Atlanta complex.
The residents got their housing at the Adams House apartment complex through the nonprofit organization 3Keys Inc.
The nonprofit helps provide housing to people dealing with homelessness and mental illness.
3Keys once had a seven year-agreement with the complex to use government funds to pay residents’ rent and utilities. The nonprofit’s funding comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
A company called Meridian Management Group bought the apartments and hiked the prices of the units.
Mackenzie Harkins is the Director of External Affairs with 3Keys. She says the nonprofit can no longer afford for their residents to stay at the complex.
“We had been renting for about $800,” Harkins said. “They raised the rents to $1,058, which is more than we have in our grant funds to pay for the units.”
Harkins says, in late September, the residents received 60-day notices to leave the complex. She also says Meridian stop accepting funds from 3Keys as of October 1.
Meridian did not respond to WABE’s request for comment.
The management group recently faced protests in DeKalb County after it bought the Forest At Columbia apartments, and told existing tenants they had to go.
