OaksATL began alongside neighbors in English Avenue. While serving families through Peace Preparatory Academy, our founder, Matt Maxwell, saw first hand how unsafe housing conditions forced people from their homes. At the time, more than 60% of homes in the neighborhood sat vacant or abandoned.
In 2016, a school family endured raw sewage flooding outside their apartment for more than a month while their landlord did nothing. Seeing neighbors live through such injustice moved Matt and the Peace Prep team to respond, giving rise to OaksATL.
In 2020, OaksATL purchased, renovated, and repopulated the very building that catalyzed our mission, affordably renting all 10 units to neighborhood families. Now, as prices continue to rise on Atlanta’s Westside, we are still committed to preserving affordability, restoring dignity, and walking with neighbors for the long haul.
OaksATL residents housed
Safe, affordable OaksATL units in English Avenue
New OaksATL units in development
Retail spaces in development
Affordable housing units built for development partners
New units under construction for development partners
English Avenue is a historic neighborhood just northwest of downtown Atlanta. Over the past century, it has grown and changed alongside the city, shaped by waves of white flight, periods of prosperity as a thriving, working-class Black community, followed by decades of disinvestment driven by systemic neglect, speculation, and violence.
Through it all, English Avenue has remained home to remarkable people. Gladys Knight, Maynard Jackson, the Pips, and Representative ‘Able’ Mable Thomas all attended elementary school here. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his family lived just down the road in neighboring Vine City.
The neighborhood has never been defined by its hardships alone. It has also been a place of culture and resilience. The community that came before us was deeply rooted, many of those roots outlasting seasons of struggle. That’s why we rebuild, restore, and renew high-quality, affordable housing and places to belong. These aren’t new ideas; they’re already rich in the soil of this neighborhood.
Mailing Address
478 Lindsay Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30314
Office Address
751 James P. Brawley Drive, NW
Suite 6 Atlanta, GA 30318
Info@OaksATL.com
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404.692.2067
EIN: 82-0811019
