DeKalb housing investment: officials outline bond plan that depends on half‑mill vote
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Summary
County housing staff described a program that would begin with a $12M–$15M annual allocation and use bond proceeds (administration projected ~ $155M) to leverage additional funds for production and preservation; commissioners sought governance, transit integration and debt‑service details and were told the proposal depends on a separate millage vote in July.
DeKalb County’s housing leadership presented a multi‑year strategy to address affordability and homelessness that pairs an annual dedicated allocation with targeted bond issuance to accelerate projects.
Dr. Alan Ferguson, the county’s chief housing officer, said the administration envisions an initial annual allocation of $12 million–$15 million and a bond program structured to support construction, preservation and programmatic interventions. “We’re going to issue bonds that will generate somewhere in the neighborhood around a $155,000,000 in proceeds,” Ferguson said, adding the county expects to leverage those proceeds alongside federal, state and private capital to magnify investment over an eight‑to‑ten‑year horizon.
Staff framed the bond as a drawdown structure: projects would be approved through a governance process, and bonds issued to fund approved activities as needed. Ferguson said the county expects the capital to support production, owner‑occupied rehabilitation, down‑payment assistance and transitional services tied to homelessness responses; he also said the administration plans stakeholder work sessions and public input during program design.
Commissioners pressed on key dependencies: the county’s ability to issue and service debt hinges on a separate half‑mill increase that will be on the Board’s July agenda. Administration and finance staff said the operating budget being considered assumes that millage change; if the increase is rejected, the administration said it would temporarily use reserves in 2026 but could not sustain the program’s full scale in later years without the new revenue. Commissioners asked administration to return with debt‑service modeling, bond schedules, and clearer governance procedures before any bond action.
Next steps: staff will provide a detailed debt‑service and bonding analysis to the committee and schedule stakeholder/work‑session presentations. Any bond resolution would return to the full board for approval and would require a separate decision on the millage increase to secure long‑term repayment.