More people in Atlanta are living on the streets this year, new count finds

ATLANTA – The number of people facing homelessness in Atlanta is on the rise, according to a January count just released by a nonprofit that leads the city’s housing efforts.

The 2024 Partners For Home point-in-time count found about 2,900 people living on the streets or in shelters. That’s a seven percent spike from 2023.

The organization’s executive director blames the housing market as the single largest factor.

“We see this increase as the rents go up, and the vacancy rates go down,” said Cathryn Vassell. 

But she and some city leaders believe the number to be much higher in the summer. 

“It’s illuminating. It shows we have a lot more work to do,” said council member Liliana Bakhtiari. “But we have incomplete data. We need to be doing more.” 

Bakhtiari said that’s because it was taken in the dead of winter. 

“We need additional information, especially during hotter months when chances of health issues or heat-related deaths can occur,” she said.

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She said she is exploring legislation to do two counts a year, as opposed to the bi-annual count that the federal government mandates be done in January. Vassell pointed out the organization conducts annual counts in January, beyond what the Department of Housing and Urban Development requires. 

“It’s not a perfect number by any means,” she said. “I don’t know how much of a greater impact it would have to do multiple counts per year. It is logistically a very big endeavor that we put off with over 300 volunteers.”

She pointed out that even with this uptick since 2016, homelessness rates in Atlanta are down 30 percent.

Council member Bakhtiari said she could introduce the measure creating a second yearly homeless count as early as next week.