New Projects Alongside Neighbors and Partners

Fall 2025 Update

What if when you looked out your windows and instead of seeing a neighbor’s car in the driveway, or kids playing the yard, or a rocking chair on the front porch, your eyes are met with boarded windows and vacancy? This may be hard to imagine, but when OaksATL started working in English Avenue, more than 60% of the homes in the neighborhood were abandoned. Disinvestment and depopulation was a significant barrier to the thriving community that legacy residents desired.

Eight years in, we’re making progress. In partnership with other organizations and hand in hand with English Avenue residents, OaksATL has been a part of reducing neighborhood blight by more than 50%.

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Across our apartments, residents also continue to grow, dream, and build toward their personal goals. As the neighborhood reestablishes its roots, we’re catching glimpses of the kind of flourishing described in Psalm 1:

“They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.”

We remain expectant that God will continue to work in this place we seek to rebuild. Over the spring and summer, our Board of Directors and staff developed a five-year strategic plan to expand access to safe, secure, and dignified housing for our neighbors while also creating opportunities for upward mobility.

Our approved strategic plan is called Grow 2030. We want to see English Avenue and its residents grow like trees planted by streams of water: putting down roots, establishing belonging, and reaching upward toward their dreams.

The cornerstone of Grow 2030 is an expansion of our current 33 rental units to 100 units, apartments and single-families, owned and managed by OaksATL. We recognize this will take time, discipline, and investment. We also believe OaksATL is uniquely positioned right now to cultivate these deep, lasting community roots.

We look forward to sharing more about Grow 2030 in the coming months. In the meantime, if you’re curious, please reach out. We’d love to share more with you personally about our vision for the next chapter.

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