GE Tower tenants face poor living conditions amid renovations to preserve affordable housing

Tenants of GE Tower , an apartment complex southwest of downtown Atlanta, held a press conference in the courtyard of the building Wednesday morning to air grievances about a long list of ongoing issues they’ve faced with management. Backed by representatives of the Housing Justice League, the tenants’ mounting frustration was palpable.

From sexual harassment, a lack of leases, and seven-day eviction notices for unaccountable charges to rodents, mold, intimidation, safety concerns, and more, tenants expressed they are tired of having their livelihoods disrupted with no solutions in sight.

The problems can be traced back to 2021, when Invest Atlanta and MARTA provided $30 million in funding to Lincoln Avenue Capital (LAC) , an affordable housing developer who acquired GE Tower, to renovate the 201-unit complex. The investment’s aim was to improve and preserve affordable housing near MARTA’s West End rail station. However, tenants and the Housing Justice League said the aim to improve the building has had them paying the price.

Michelle Anderson has lived in GE Towers for 16 years. She said of those 16 years, these last two have been the “hardest.” Anderson has a disability that requires her to walk with a quad walking cane. When the elevators in the building were down, she had to spend months dragging herself up two flights of stairs to get to her apartment. Anderson said it’s only recently that the elevators have been fixed.

“Every time I asked, [they said] it will be fixed on Friday. And it was a Friday. It just happened to be a Friday that the Housing Authority was coming,” Anderson said. “It’s just been crazy these last two years. On the second of this month, I was ready to go.”

It’s a common occurrence for many tenants. They’ve sent in maintenance requests and complained to management about leaks that create puddles in their apartments and collapse their ceilings, infestations that would leave fecal matter, and management throwing away clothes and furniture during the move-out process of renovations, all to no avail. Tenants said management told them they might as well move out — a suggestion that is not feasible for many of the low-income residents — and would have closed-door meetings so there are no online records of the grievances.

Tenants have accused LAC of stealing, claiming management would tell them they have balances due of thousands of dollars for utilities and rent tenants had paid. They’re threatened with eviction notices if they don’t pay the balance within a week.

They also described when management put tenants in a hotel during the renovation process, promising room service and nearby restaurants. There was no room service; the nearest establishment was a liquor store.

“There are many egregious violations of what your housing should be in general, and the tenants are tired of dealing with this — tired of not having their place feel secure,” Monica Johnson, a representative of the Housing Justice League, said. “We know that in the city of Atlanta, the average working-class person and low-income person is being pushed out of the city. Lincoln Avenue Capital is claiming that they want to provide affordable housing and preserve affordable housing, but all of their actions say that they want to push these people out.”

The problems the renovation construction has brought are also a glaring concern. Johnson described a situation where a construction worker sexually harassed the daughter of a tenant. There have also been incidents where the workers have scratched tenants’ cars and thrown debris down from ladders while children run around.

Leslie Ragan, a GE Tower resident for 10 years, said she’s witnessed security concerns, such as trespassers due to unsecured gates in the gated community and open construction access points that have put the children living in the complex in danger. Ragan revealed she decided to go straight to the Housing Authority with these problems due to a fear of retaliation. She’s also reached out to Invest Atlanta, but she suspects the issues are deliberate.

“My feeling is that this is just an attempt to have a multitude of breeches going on. Ultimately, the fear that’s been implanted in a lot of residents here, some residents are electing to just leave instead of having to deal with the situation of not maybe having a house,” Ragan said. “It’s like a multi-prong approach to get the property in a situation where it’s no longer eligible or disqualified to be subsidized housing and that opens up the window for the owners to enter into a marketplace, rent, lease purchase, what have you.”

Devin Barrington-Ward, a community organizer and candidate for Atlanta City Council, likened these situations to the 1996 Olympics when the city accelerated a range of urban development projects that displaced low-income residents.

“We know the face of Atlanta is changing right before the 2026 U.S. soccer games, right? We know that the World Cup is coming here. This is our ‘96 Olympics again,” Barrington-Ward said. “I’m calling on members of council when they return from their summer recess to introduce and pass a resolution calling on the Atlanta Housing Authority, Invest Atlanta and the MARTA board to open an investigation against this property management company to find out what exactly is going on here.”

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