The Fulton County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday reversed course and voted to fully fund supportive services for 532 formerly unhoused Atlanta residents living in permanent housing delivered by the city.
That walks back Fulton’s roughly $2.1 million funding gap in its $1.4 billion draft budget for FY 2026, which started Jan. 1. Fulton’s COO, Pamela Roshell, said at a Jan. 7 commission meeting that the county only had enough money to fund services for 302 Atlantans living in existing units — not the additional people to be rehoused in 230 units the city says it will deliver by the end of this year.
After Fulton released its proposed budget earlier this month, local homeless advocates spotted the $2.1 million funding gap. That stems from a 30-year commitment Fulton made in 2019 to subsidize wraparound services, including mental health and substance use treatment, for formerly homeless Atlantans who’d occupy 550 housing units the city of Atlanta had in the works. Since the city plans to deliver a total of 230 new units by the end of 2026, Fulton should fund services for them, the advocates said.
A last-minute pressure campaign — driven by homeless services nonprofit Partners for Home, local housing groups, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, and new City Councilmember Kelsea Bond — prompted the county to change course. Numerous county commissioners, including Mo Ivory and Marvin Arrington Jr., also lobbied to restore the funding.
Fulton Commission Chair Robb Pitts announced at a Jan. 21 commission meeting to finalize its FY 2026 budget that the county would allocate the $4.8 million required to fund supportive services for 532 total households this year.
Kelsea Bond has been in office for a month and already getting things in shape!
As several mentioned in public comment, Fulton would have the money to fund this and its other obligations if they’d tax commercial trophies and data centers at fair market value. When will Commissioners stop denying the huge commercial valuation gap and require staff appraisers to do their jobs properly?