Building the People Who Build Housing

DeKalb County Is Investing in the People Who Build Housing. Is That You?

When people talk about solving a housing crisis, the conversation usually centers on financing, land, and policy. Those things matter. But there’s another factor that often gets overlooked: the people who are actually building homes.

DeKalb County and Decide DeKalb Development Authority are launching the Housing Capacity Building Seed Fund, a new program designed to grow the number and diversity of people and organizations who can develop housing here in the county. If you have land, a project idea, or the drive to develop housing but have not been sure how to get started, or are facing predevelopment funding challenges, this program was built for you.

Why Capacity Building Is Part of the Housing Strategy

Right now, the pool of experienced housing developers working in DeKalb County is limited, and that limits how much can get done. There are also real barriers to entry for nonprofit organizations, small investors, and emerging developers who want to contribute but face obstacles, such as lack of access to early-stage capital. At the same time, there is more developable land in DeKalb County than people often assume. The county is not fully built out. It  has a significant number of underutilized and blighted properties that are not at their highest and best use, and unlocking those parcels requires people with the knowledge, support, and resources to act on them.

The Housing Capacity Building Seed Fund is designed to address all of that at once.

What the Program Provides

The Seed Fund provides early-stage, pre-development grants along with technical assistance and project readiness support. The goal is to help move projects from concept to feasibility and from feasibility into the active development pipeline where they can attract full development financing from other capital sources.

Participants will have access to practical development knowledge and experienced technical advisors covering site selection, zoning and variance processes, financing and capital identification, and development project management. The cohort structure also creates a peer network and introduces participants to private and public partners across the development and financing space.

Three Initiatives Within the Seed Fund

The Housing Capacity Building Seed Fund will launch with three distinct initiatives, each aimed at a different type of participant.

The DeKalb Land to Legacy Initiative is focused on faith-based organizations and other institutions that hold surplus, vacant, or underutilized land they are ready to activate for residential or mixed-use development. Many organizations across DeKalb County have seen attendance decline in recent years and find themselves with land or parking that is no longer serving its original purpose. This initiative is for those organizations that have already decided they want to move forward with development and need the technical support and pre-development funding to get there.

NSIDE DeKalb, which stands for DeKalb County’s Neighborhood Scale Incremental Development Education Program, is aimed at residents, local entrepreneurs, smaller investors, and emerging developers who are looking to move into multifamily or mixed-use development at a neighborhood scale. This could mean a smaller standalone project or an individual phase within a larger redevelopment plan. The focus is on grassroots development and neighborhood revitalization through projects that reflect the communities they are built in.

The DeKalb Land Bank Capacity Building Initiative is structured to support land bank and land disposition processes, helping to increase access to vacant and underutilized properties across the county and accelerating their conversion into productive housing.

Who Should Apply

The Seed Fund is designed to serve a wide range of participants, including nonprofit organizations, faith-based institutions, small and emerging developers, residents and community groups with development opportunities, and anchor institutions with excess land that can be activated for housing. Mixed-use development projects with a residential component are also eligible.

Both multifamily and for-sale single-family development opportunities qualify. The program is open countywide, including within incorporated cities such as the City of Atlanta in areas that fall within DeKalb County.

Applicants do not need to be headquartered in DeKalb County, but they do need to own or have control (an executed purchase and sale agreement or long term ground lease) of land or property within DeKalb County that they intend to develop.. Participants who are further along with their development process will be better positioned to access pre-development funding sooner.

Decide DeKalb will give priority to projects in historically underserved communities, including qualified census tracts, difficult-to-develop areas, state and federal opportunity zones, and areas within Decide DeKalb Tax Allocation Districts or areas that have experienced disinvestment over time. First-time and emerging developers, particularly minority developers who face additional barriers to accessing pre-development capital, are also a priority. Geographic equity across the county is also a stated goal, so funding and technical assistance will not be concentrated in any single area or jurisdiction.

How to Get Involved

You can submit applications directly to Decide DeKalb through their website. Once accepted, participants will take part in cohort-based training, work with staff to develop a project concept plan, and be evaluated for pre-development funding eligibility or connected to other sources of support.

If you are an experienced developer, real estate professional, or other practitioner who is interested in serving as a mentor or technical advisor to emerging participants, Decide DeKalb wants to hear from you as well.

What to Expect on the Timeline

The Housing Investment Bond Fund closing is targeted for August2026. Program guidelines will be finalized in Fall 2026, with a program launch expected in the first quarter of 2027. Decide DeKalb staff will review all applications, and the Board of Directors will approve the applicants selected to participate in the cohorts. Cohorts are anticipated to begin in the second quarter of 2027.

This is the kind of program that works best when word spreads. If you know a church, a nonprofit, a neighbor, or a small developer who has been sitting on a property and wondering what to do with it, share this with them.

Follow DeKalb County and Decide DeKalb on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for updates as the program moves toward launch. Direct questions to [email protected].

DeKalb County cannot build its way to stronger communities alone. This program is an open invitation for more people to be part of the solution.