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OFFICERS James W. Dorsey President Ferdinand Buckley 1st Vice President Sarah Frances McDonald 2nd Vice President Clifford Oxford Secretary William H. Alexander Treasurer /4LANTA LEGAL AID SOCIETY, INC. TELEPHONES: (404) 524 - 5811 (404) 577-5260 153 PRYOR STREET, S. W. ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30303 April 11th, 1969 STAFF Michael D. Padnos Director Nancy s. Cheves General Counsel Richard Harris Community Education L. Rosser Shelton Virginia A. Bips Bettye H. Kehrer Evelyn S. Fabian Eugene s. Taylor John W. Brent Elmer L. Nash Larry B. Hooks D. Freeman Hutton Cynthia T. Beattie Melvin E. Thompson, Jr. Michael H. Terry Edward L. Baety William J. Brennan, Jr. George Howell Sondra Goldenfarb Reuben Bussey Kend ric Smith Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr., Mayor, The City of Atlanta City Hall, 68 Mitchell Street, S. W., Atlanta, Gecn::-gia 30303 Dear Mayor Allen: Thank you for your letter of April subject of AHA's residency requirement. As an Atlantan I am entirely sympathetic with the problem you and the city have encountered. I know of your efforts to persuade county officials to build public housing outside the city limits, and I know how frustrating it is to deal with officials who coldly and calmly throw all of their problems onto our shoulders. A residency requirement for public housing, however, punishes only low-income people. It does not work to force out-of- city officials to build public housing, because poor people are politically weak (especially in non-urban areas) and invariably ignorant about asserting such power as they may have. The dilemma faced by Atlanta, of course, is grave. Irrespons ible officials force people i nto our city, and irresponsible legislators deny us the f unds to deal with the problems their jurisdictions have imposed upon us. But this dilemma cannot be solved by residency requirements, which are both unconstitutional and unwise. I presume we must attempt to solve our problems by continuing our search for federal and state funds to bui~d new housing . SPO N S OR ED BY UNITED APPEAL A N D ECON O MI C OPPORTU N ITY ATLANTA, IN C . / �Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr., April 11th, 1969 Page #2. And while I know it is no answer to the problem you and the city face today, I must point out that Atlanta has built its justifiably brilliant national reputation in _ large part on the concern you and your administration have shown for the humane resolution of urban problems. Anyone can find an angry solution to the 20th Century: it takes an Ivan Allen to find a calm one. Legal Aid now has a number of clients who have suffered as a result of AHA's policy. (I understand you discussed one of these clients with Eugene Taylor , a lawyer on this staff.) As I am sure you know I wrote to you and Mr. Sterne not out of any desire to "create an issue," but in the hope of resolving, without litigation or publicity, a very real problem facing a number of clients of this office. s;~~

Michael D. Padnos Director MDP/cj c c: Mr . Edwi n L. Stern e , Chairma n, Board of Commissioners Atla n ta Housing Author i t y �