Atlanta gives Peoplestown residents 30 days to move out of homes

ATLANTA - The City of Atlanta has stepped up efforts to force several people out of their homes in one of the city's neighborhoods.

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City leaders have used eminent domain to get residents of the Peoplestown community, which is about 2 miles southeast of Atlanta's downtown, to leave the area.

One homeowner tells FOX 5 the city told them they have less than a month to move. But she says they are not going anywhere.

"I got an eviction notice mailed to me last Friday by my attorney," Tanya Washington Hicks said.

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She says last week the city emailed her lawyer a notice saying she had 30 days to vacate her home on Atlanta Avenue.

"I was very surprised - very surprised," she said.

That would mean the Georgia State law professor, her husband, and their 5-year-old would have to move out right before Thanksgiving.

Washington Hicks has been fighting to stay in her home for years.

The fight centers on flooding. Atlanta has proposed building a park, retention pond, and drainage vaults to fix the problem that happens when it rains in the area.

Washington Hicks says the city is trying to claim eminent domain to bully her and others from their homes and says she is not leaving no matter what.

"I am not going to obey an unlawful exercise of authority and that’s exactly what this was," she says.

The Atlanta mayor’s office would not comment on the notice. Officials have said previously that the city has owned the properties for five years and have tried to work out a resolution. 

They don’t want to relocate families, but officials say they have to do what’s best for the community.

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