In a city grappling with an affordable housing crisis, within a state that’s banned rent control, Atlanta’s mostly Black homeless population continues to increase.
The annual survey of homeless people in the metro area revealed a 1% rise in Atlanta’s overall homeless population. The city saw a 7% year-over-year increase in 2024, and a 33% surge in 2023.
Even though Atlanta has been less than half Black since 2020, 80% of all homeless people are Black.
“[The data] is a signal that the house is still on fire, and the scale of the crisis is bigger than what cities alone can handle,” Atlanta City Council member Liliana Bakhtiari told Capital B Atlanta earlier this month.
The fact that 8 out of 10 homeless people are Black in a city known as a Black Mecca should “stop everyone in their tracks,” according to Bakhtiari.
“That’s not a coincidence, that’s the product of a system that’s failed Black families for generations — due to redlining, due to wage discrimination, due to mass incarceration, due to unequal access to health care and education,” she added. “Homelessness isn’t just a housing problem. It’s a justice problem.”
Last year, in a study of the 50 largest metro areas in the country, Atlanta was ranked dead last in economic mobility for children born into poverty.
For Black Atlanta, these data points further entrench the existing racial wealth gap created by decades of discrimination and income inequality. In recent years, as affordable housing options have disappeared, thousands of Black Atlantans have been displaced or become homeless.
A person working a full-time job would have to earn $30 an hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in the Atlanta metro area.
Read More: Evicted and Soon Homeless: How Metro Atlanta Landlords Put Black Families on the Streets
The most visible consequence of this reality are the more than 1,000 unsheltered homeless people who live on the streets or in tents across the city. Unsheltered people often find it harder to get back on their feet because stigmatization and criminalization have pushed many to the fringes of society.
While homelessness is a systemic problem, that requires systemic solutions, residents can still find ways to have a positive impact on the lives of our unhoused neighbors.
Kindness and consideration can go a long way
Unsheltered homeless people often experience loneliness and social isolation despite spending much of their time in public places. Many people assume the best way to discourage a homeless person from asking for money is by avoiding eye contact. While this may feel like a momentary faux pas at the end of the day, for homeless people who are constantly ignored, it can become dehumanizing.
Eye contact, open body language, and matching their volume and tone are simple ways to engage homeless people in a respectful way.
If you see someone in distress, call 311
Poverty is so heavily criminalized under state and local law that in 2022, 1 out of every 8 people booked into Fulton County jail was homeless at the time of their arrest. Calling the police is the instinctual first response a lot of people have to a homeless person who is causing a nuisance in the park or outside a store. Police, however, are not social workers or mental health professionals and can easily escalate the situation, causing more harm than good. There is no way to arrest our way out of this problem; police officers can be much more inclined to arrest a person who is in need of assistance, not a cell.
Instead, call 311 and select the Support Services option that connects you with the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative. On weekdays from 7 a.m. to midnight, PAD is an option for nonemergency quality of life situations that often stem from extreme poverty and mental health and substance abuse. When PAD’s community response team arrives, it will assess the situation and can offer a warm meal, clean clothes, and transportation to a shelter.
PAD doesn’t operate after midnight and on weekends, so 911 may be the best option. But even without PAD, diversion is still an option for officers. The Center for Diversion and Services in downtown Atlanta is open 24/7 to every law enforcement officer in Fulton County, and it takes less than 90 seconds.
Read More: Revamped Motel Gives Atlanta’s Unhoused a Second Chance — But for How Long?
Carry a few care packs in your car
Care packages for homeless people can be as simple as a few snacks, toiletries, and cash in a Ziploc bag.
Atlanta Mission, the oldest nonprofit serving homeless people in the city, recommends the care packages include simple items that can help unsheltered people no matter where they are:
- A bottle of water (reusable is even better)
- Tissues, deodorant, sunscreen, lip balm, feminine hygiene products, hand sanitizer, wipes, mints
- Trail mix, granola, protein bars
- A few dollars
- A preloaded MARTA card
Listen and learn
The only experts on what it’s like to be homeless in your community are the homeless people in your community. So sometimes the best way to understand an issue is to hear first hand from the person it affects.
There are dozens of organizations that work with homeless people in and around Atlanta that need your support, such as The Gateway Center, Atlanta Mission, PAD Atlanta, HOPE Atlanta, City of Refuge, Nicholas House and Intown Cares.
With the World Cup looming, it is going to be more important than ever that homeless people are included in conversations about how to address the dozens of unsheltered people living in downtown Atlanta.
Volunteer your time as a family
Food insecurity is a constant concern for homeless people, who have to figure out where their next meal will come from every day. The Atlanta Community Food Bank relies on its network of over 40,000 volunteers to distribute meals to individuals and families across the metro area and North Georgia.
It can even become a family activity, because the food bank accepts volunteers as young as 8 years old. Last year, it distributed 113 million meals in total. More than half the people it serves earn more than 130% of the federal poverty line, limiting their eligibility for government assistance like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Staff writer Chauncey Alcorn contributed to this report.
