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People who used to live at Forest Cove complex still struggling after demolition

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Published  April 23, 2024 11:39pm EDT
Atlanta City Council
FOX 5 Atlanta

Displaced families ask for help from the city

People who used to call the infamous forest cove apartment complex want to go home. Not specifically to that complex, but just back to Atlanta. They say they’ve mostly been moved out of city limits far from their jobs, friends, and a way to get around.

ATLANTA - People who used to live at the problem-plagued Forest Cove apartments say even though the complex is gone, their problems are not. 

Last month, crews tore down the complex in southeast Atlanta.  

City leaders said it was falling apart and a hotbed for crime.  

Some say where they’ve ended up is even worse. 

"I don’t know anyone out there," one former Forest Cove resident named Taneka Thomas told city council members Tuesday. "I don’t have transportation." 

Thomas is among about a dozen residents who say they’ve mostly been moved out of city limits, far from their jobs, friends, and way to get around. 

"Lives are being destroyed," said former resident Madrika Gray. "Mentally, physically, emotionally, financially." 

Those who used to live in the asbestos-infested complex say they’ve been relocated to the outskirts – some as far as Stockbridge and Ellenwood. 

They say their new apartments aren’t any better. 

"Some of the units are in worse condition than Forest Cove," one woman said.  

Thomas said her new place has bugs crawling out of the sink. 

Mayor renews promises to build new affordable housing

In a memo obtained by FOX 5 from Mayor Andre Dickens' senior housing advisor to the City Council’s Community Development/Human Services committee, staff renewed promises to build a new affordable housing complex in Thomasville Heights. 

 "The mayor … will do everything in his legal authority to ensure that all Forest Cove residents that wish to return to Thomasville Heights will have a pathway to do so," the memo reads. 

Council member Jason Winston, chair of the committee, reaffirmed that commitment.  

"A goal of ours is always to make sure those who left Forest Cove have an opportunity to go back to Thomasville Heights," Winston said. "That is still a high priority."  

That memo says that the development of city land is in the rezoning process now. 

But for all these people born and raised in Atlanta – now suddenly finding themselves away from home – that can’t come soon enough. 

"We’ve been thrown out of our comfort zone and into the outskirts of Atlanta," one woman told the committee during public comment. "I don’t want to be in the outskirts. I want to be in the City of Atlanta."