ATLANTA — Recent data has revealed a 1% increase in overall homelessness in the City of Atlanta from the previous year, 2024.
This finding was part of the yearly Point-in-Time Count conducted on January 27, where hundreds of volunteers aimed to assess the number of unhoused individuals across the city.
Mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the PIT Count is essential for communities receiving federal funding through grant programs.
“It gives us a gauge of how we’re doing on this crisis as a community, and it also helps determine how we allocate resources and drive investments to create more housing resources to exit people out of homelessness as quickly as possible,” stated Partners for Home CEO Cathryn Vassell.
The report published on Monday indicated the overall increase in homelessness; however, it also highlighted a significant 9% drop in chronic homelessness.
Vassell characterized chronic homelessness as a crisis population that requires targeted assistance, saying, “This has been a population that is highly vulnerable in our system, that we are laser focused on. This is our crisis population, the folks who are most in need, who but for our assistance, will not exit homelessness on their own.”
She noted that the 9% decrease translates to approximately 74 individuals, attributing this positive development to the organization’s focused investments in permanent supportive housing.
The nonprofit Partners for Home is currently about one year into a five-year plan to eliminate homelessness in the city.
Part of their strategy includes a major fundraising campaign called Atlanta Rising, which aims to raise $212 million.
This initiative encompasses a $75 million investment targeted toward developing new supportive housing units, aligning with the mayor’s rapid housing initiative to establish 500 new units by the end of the year.
In conjunction with that, they plan to introduce an additional 1,800 interventions of Rapid Rehousing while deploying a dedicated outreach workforce in the downtown area to assist 400 unsheltered individuals with housing.
According to Vassell, the objective is to eliminate unsheltered homelessness in downtown Atlanta by this time next year, labeling it as an aggressive strategy.
The data indicates that Atlanta’s unsheltered population increased from 1,040 in 2024 to 1,061 in 2025, highlighting the ongoing challenges faced.
Vassell also mentioned the positive trend regarding veterans and young adults experiencing homelessness, as there have been smaller reductions in their numbers within the system.
“We never want to see a veteran who served our country experiencing homelessness or living on our streets. So the ability of our community to tailor resources and leverage resources around homeless veterans, to get them into housing is something we are also hyper focused on, along with young adults,” she remarked.
The reduction in numbers among vulnerable populations is a hopeful sign, according to Vassell, who emphasized the importance of continued efforts and resources to combat homelessness in the city.
image source from：https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/atlanta-homeless-data-report-overall-cases-chronic-cases/85-aa01a47f-ada7-49ed-97ab-ad8916ae8dcb
