diff --git a/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/config.py b/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/config.py
index 42a4353e..9a9eaaba 100644
--- a/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/config.py
+++ b/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/config.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ class OpenAddressesConfig(object):
 
         config = yaml.load(open(path))
         self.config = config['global']
-        self.pre_release_downloads = config.get('pre_release_downloads', [])
         self.country_configs = config['countries']
 
     @property
diff --git a/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/download_openaddresses.py b/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/download_openaddresses.py
index 3ac02ccc..24ca5851 100644
--- a/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/download_openaddresses.py
+++ b/scripts/geodata/openaddresses/download_openaddresses.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ def download_and_unzip_file(url, out_dir):
 
 
 def download_pre_release_downloads(out_dir):
-    for url in openaddresses_config.pre_release_downloads:
+    for url in openaddresses_config.config.get('pre_release_downloads', []):
         print(six.u('doing pre_release {}').format(safe_decode(url)))
 
         success = download_and_unzip_file(url, out_dir)