Atlanta became the eviction capital of the United States last year. And the fate of two bills aimed at combatting homelessness and increasing affordable housing construction across Georgia may be decided today as state lawmakers convene on the last day of this year’s legislative session, also known as Sine Die.
Housing justice advocates say enacting both proposed laws is crucial to addressing a statewide affordable housing crisis that has disproportionately impacted Black communities in metro Atlanta. They’re asking supporters concerned about the high cost of rent and the affordable housing shortage to contact their elected leaders in the state Senate and tell them to pass HB 689 and HB 1132.
Both bills were tabled in the Senate on Wednesday and must be passed in the chamber by midnight to ultimately be signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in the coming weeks.
This year’s annual 40-day lawmaking blitz was a particularly disappointing one for Alison Johnson, executive director of the Housing Justice League. She and other affordable housing activists watched a number of key bills ultimately fail to advance over the past three months despite receiving bipartisan support in a midterm election cycle where affordability has been the top issue for many voters.
Johnson noted that Atlanta’s status as the eviction capital is partly due to state lawmakers prioritizing the interests of corporate landlords, the real estate industry and private equity lobbyists over working families.
“We are extremely frustrated in terms of the rate at which housing [policy] is being prioritized,” Johnson told Capital B Atlanta. “It really speaks to what our legislators and our leaders think about their constituents.”
Key housing bills still alive
HB 689 is a measure that would create a homelessness prevention program by establishing and giving flexible grants to local governments and nonprofits to provide aid in their communities.
In January, Kemp announced that the state is setting aside $50 million for a Homelessness Response Grant to address the issue ahead of the World Cup coming to Atlanta in June.
Housing advocate Elizabeth Appley says HB 689 would create an emergency rental assistance program within the state’s Department of Community Affairs to help keep families at risk of being homeless address short-term financial needs.
The rate of homelessness in Atlanta rose for three consecutive years from 2023 through 2025 despite noteworthy efforts by the city’s Continuum of Care network and Mayor Andre Dickens’ office to combat the problem. The results of the region’s latest homeless census count, conducted in January, haven’t been released yet.
Black folks made up less than half of the city’s population in January 2025, but represented 80% of the unhoused in metro Atlanta.
“Certainly the challenges that minority populations face and rural populations face are egregious aspects of our housing crisis,” Appley told Capital B Atlanta.
Housing advocates are also pushing for passage of HB 1132 on Sine Die. The bipartisan measure co-sponsored by state Reps. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, and Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, would reduce the cost to build and rehab affordable housing units created by public charities and nonprofit groups, such as Habitat for Humanity, by exempting their construction materials from state and local sales taxes.
Members of the state House approved a substitute version of the bill on March 6. Its fate now remains with the state Senate, which tabled the measure Wednesday.
Appley, Johnson, and other housing advocates are also calling on state senators to reject HB 61, known as the Georgia Anti-Squatting Act of 2026, and SB 463. Both measures would change state law to make it easier for extended stay hotels to evict residents with past-due fees.
State Rep. Devan Seabaugh, R-Marietta, has argued the bill is necessary to combat illegal squatting. The debate comes at a time when many Black Atlanta families are being priced out of traditional rental properties in their communities and forced to move into extended stay hotels at higher rates because they can’t afford to live anywhere else.
More than 4,600 people in DeKalb County alone are living in extended stay facilities, according to a Georgia State University study released in January. That includes more than 1,600 children, the study authors found.
“This is a very vulnerable population,” Appley said. “They are living there as housing of last resort.”
Appley and state lawmakers who want to stop corporate landlords from buying up single-family homes in metro Atlanta voiced frustration about SB 463.
The measure originally introduced by state Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, in February would have capped the number of single-family homes private equity firms can buy at 500 units. It was passed by the Senate in March but was overhauled in the House later the same month.
The revised, substitute version of the bill contains anti-squatting provisions similar to HB 61. State Rep. Derrick McCollum, R-Chestnut Mountain, told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday that he believes private equity lobbyists intervened on HB 61. He said his anti-corporate landlord bill, known as HB 555, suffered a similar fate last year when real estate lobbyists intervened after the measure gained bipartisan support from Democrats and Republicans in the Gold Dome.
Proponents had hoped their efforts would cross the finish line this year after President Donald Trump backed the idea at the federal level.
“It’s frustrating that we can’t do something about this,” McCollum told Capital B Atlanta. “These private equity groups just spent so much money on fighting it. … Sometimes it takes a long time to turn the boat. I think we’ll get something done and potentially have a governor in the next cycle that will take it up and see it as a huge issue.”
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