optional carport, brick veneer, asbestos roof shingles, and weatherboarding. 248 If sold at market rate, these houses would have been priced at $10,000 to $11,000, making them comparable to homes purchased by white families at the time. Residents were also moved into public housing. 249 Bowen Homes were primarily built to fulfill the “healthy and sanitary” housing requirement of the public housing mandate. Temporary publicly funded housing located in southeast Atlanta was negotiated through continuous, direct action by the CRISIS House led by Edward Ducree. Gilbert Gardens, a 220-unit housing complex located at Gilbert and Flynn Roads SE, far from downtown’s businesses and commercial districts, opened in 1971 because of Ducree and the CRISIS House efforts. 250 U-Rescue led to the development of U-Rescue Villa on North Avenue. Several families and individuals were unaccounted for, and their resettlement remains unknown.
Figure B-17: Gilbert Gardens, 1968 Courtesy of Atlanta Housing Archives
Bowen Homes opened in 1964. 251 The complex, which comprised 650-units for 4,000 people, was situated on 53.9 acres of land bordered by Bankhead Highway to the north, Field Road to the east, and Jackson Parkway adjacent to the property. 252 Bowen Homes was located far from the central business district, a reflection of the racial segregation laws and the practice of excluding and removing Black residents from central areas. The Atlanta Housing Authority named the housing complex after John
248 Hughes, “Misunderstanding Halts Housing” . 249 Hughes, “Misunderstanding Halts Housing” . 250 Fact Sheet on Ground-breaking: $4 Million Low-Rent Housing, Atlanta Housing Authority, 1968 . 251 Dedication JWE Bowen Homes . Atlanta Housing Authority, 1969.
252 Atlanta Housing Authority, Bowen Homes.
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