How to End Income Inequality in Atlanta

In the five years since the release of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2019 Chang­ing the Odds report, we’ve seen encour­ag­ing progress in Atlanta. As detailed in our 2024 report, address­ing inequity and cre­at­ing equi­table out­comes are now a major pri­or­i­ty for the city’s pri­vate and pub­lic stake­hold­ers. Atlanta’s non­prof­its and sys­tems are also using dis­ag­gre­gat­ed data to bet­ter under­stand how the lat­est trends affect dif­fer­ent kinds of res­i­dents, includ­ing low-income house­holds and house­holds of color.

Although this progress is notable, the data also show that Atlanta’s Black res­i­dents con­tin­ue to face widen­ing inequity:

• Between 2013 and 2021, the city’s Black-white medi­an income gap increased by $3,529.
• Dur­ing that same peri­od, the employ­ment rate for Black Atlantans increased by 12% while the gap between the employ­ment rates of Black and white res­i­dents nar­rowed from 15% to 6%.

How Does Afford­able Hous­ing Affect Wealth Build­ing? 

Tak­en as a whole, the data show us that employ­ment alone can­not fix the widen­ing income gap between Black and white Atlantans. Below, you’ll find two major strate­gies the Casey Foun­da­tion and its part­ners are pur­su­ing to close the racial wealth gap and encour­age Black wealth build­ing in Atlanta.

Con­nect­ing Atlanta Res­i­dents to Liv­ing Wage Jobs

Although employ­ment rates are up among Black Atlantans, these res­i­dents need jobs that pay a liv­ing wage and include ben­e­fits like health insur­ance. High-qual­i­ty employ­ment helps par­ents not only sup­port a fam­i­ly, but also enables inter­gen­er­a­tional wealth building.

Learn How to Sup­port Stu­dents of Col­or in Atlanta 

To help Black res­i­dents afford to live in the city in which they work, the Casey Foun­da­tion has invest­ed in sev­er­al part­ner­ships focused on pro­vid­ing local path­ways to high-qual­i­ty employ­ment. These include:

• South­side Works. This col­lab­o­ra­tive mod­el brings togeth­er part­ners like the Atlanta Cen­ter for Self Suf­fi­cien­cy and STRIVE. They pro­vide tech­ni­cal sup­port, wrap­around ser­vices and inter­view and job readi­ness to those seek­ing employ­ment or high­er wages on Atlanta’s Southside. 
• Thrive by 25. Atlanta — one of three Thrive by 25 sites — is home to Career­Ready ATL, an ini­tia­tive of the Unit­ed Way of Greater Atlanta. As a Thrive by 25 part­ner, it pro­motes appren­tice­ships as an impor­tant path­way to liv­ing wage, high-qual­i­ty jobs for younger adults.

Sup­port­ing Black Entre­pre­neur­ship in Atlanta

Accord­ing to a youth-led par­tic­i­pa­to­ry research project spon­sored by the Casey Foun­da­tion, Black youth and young adults see entre­pre­neur­ship as the most appeal­ing path to build­ing wealth. Casey’s efforts to sup­port Black entre­pre­neurs in Atlanta include:

• Pitts­burgh Yards. This 31-acre, Casey-fund­ed devel­op­ment in south­west Atlanta pro­motes entre­pre­neur­ship by pro­vid­ing afford­able office space, crit­i­cal tech­ni­cal assis­tance, and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for Black entre­pre­neurs and com­mu­ni­ty members.
• The Ke’Nekt. The Foun­da­tion is a long­time sup­port­er of the Ke’Nekt, a retail incu­ba­tor that con­nects and sup­ports south­west Atlanta’s Black busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty. In the com­ing year, it is set to pro­vide tech­ni­cal assis­tance, fund­ing and com­mu­ni­ty to over 40 Black small businesses. 

No one approach can close the racial wealth gap and make the odds of Black wealth cre­ation more favor­able. To begin dis­man­tling the many long­stand­ing chal­lenges Atlanta’s Black res­i­dents face, they need a vari­ety of sup­port­ive ser­vices and resources for sus­tain­able sys­temic change.

Ade Ogun­toye is a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foun­da­tion’s Atlanta Civic Site.

Learn more about the 2024 Chang­ing the Odds report