Trump plan could spike homelessness
A new Trump administration directive could drastically increase Atlanta’s unsheltered population next year, putting nearly 600 formerly homeless households back on the street.
The White House plans to slash 70% of its grant funding for permanent supportive housing programs distributed through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Continuum of Care program. That funding to rehouse people experiencing homelessness will instead go to short-term housing programs that impose work requirements and mandate drug and mental health treatment.
The cuts are expected to displace up to 170,000 formerly homeless people nationwide from federally subsidized housing, including an estimated 588 households in Atlanta, according to the city’s go-to homeless services coordinator, Partners for Home. Currently, 844 Atlanta households rely on the HUD Continuum of Care grants for housing and wraparound services.
Atlanta’s most recent HUD-mandated Point-in-Time count last January tallied 1,061 people living unsheltered. Local housing advocates say the massive cut to Continuum of Care grant funding will expand tent cities, increase panhandling, and further strain local jails and hospitals, which already serve as short-term shelter for people experiencing mental health and substance use crises.
“This is pretty much all bad,” said Cathryn Vassell, the CEO of Atlanta’s go-to homeless services nonprofit, Partners for Home.
Read our full report on the implications of the Trump directive here.
DeKalb to launch its own affordable housing fund
The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners this month approved legislation to establish a dedicated affordable housing fund, mirroring the Atlanta model that receives money each year from the city’s general fund.
The Nov. 10 resolution authorizes the county to allocate up to 2% of DeKalb’s annual operating budget to a housing trust fund to build and rehabilitate affordable housing developments, according to a county press release. Similarly, Atlanta’s housing trust fund is fueled each year by 2% of the city’s general fund.
The news comes after DeKalb leaders in October allocated $122,000 to study establishing a community land trust. This type of nonprofit makes housing more affordable by retaining ownership of a parcel and selling the housing on it at below-market rates.
“This resolution, along with the recent approval of a feasibility study for a community land trust, and DeKalb’s first-ever Housing Plan now underway, brings us closer to having all the tools we need to provide housing that all residents of DeKalb County can afford,” said Dekalb Commissioner Michelle Long Spears, who authored both the housing fund resolution and the land trust legislation.
Atlanta City Council advances housing trust fund fix
The Atlanta City Council this month advanced legislation to rein in how the city spends its $19.5 million Affordable Housing Trust Fund — but roadblocks remain.
An Atlanta Civic Circle investigation in May found that over 75% of the city’s dedicated fund, which city council created in 2021 to bankroll affordable housing projects, was instead being used to pay down housing bond debt and staff salaries. That didn’t sit right with housing advocates, or with Councilmember Matt Westmoreland, who wrote the trust fund’s enabling legislation.
In October Westmoreland proposed legislation to cap how much of the housing trust fund can be used for housing-related debt service and payroll. His proposal would require that at least half of the trust fund is used for affordable housing development, and up to another 30% to fund nonprofits’ housing programs. Only 15% could be spent paying off municipal housing bonds and 5% on staff salaries and administrative costs.
But Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration is urging caution, warning that the legislation could hamper the city’s ability to issue new housing bonds and pay staff who run housing programs.
The city council last week voted in favor of the measure, after two council committees approved it. But because it would amend the city’s charter, the council must vote in favor of it twice. The legislation goes back to the Community Development and Human Services Committee today and could go before the full council for a vote as soon as Dec. 1.
HEARD ON HOUSING
Rents spiking faster for low-income Atlantans than for the wealthy
Rent prices are surging far more for lower-income metro Atlantans than for the wealthy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project discovered that rents for suburban workforce housing in metro Atlanta rose by nearly 20%, while rents for luxury residences went up just 2% between 2021 and 2025.
That disparity is due in large part to widening income inequality — the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer, according to the group’s new study. The wealth gaps are exacerbated by Georgia’s population growth, weak tenant protections, and institutional investor activity in housing markets.
Microsot to deed Atlanta land for housing development
When Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ office announced that tech giant Microsoft will donate 22.5 acres of vacant Westside land to the city, the administration billed it as a big win for its goal to build and preserve 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030.
But the city’s nonprofit development arm, the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation (AUD), is years away from calling construction crews to the Grove Park site, just south of Shirley Clarke Franklin Park (formerly known as Westside Reservoir Park), said AUD chief executive John Majors.
Microsoft is expected to transfer the land to the city of Atlanta by summer 2026. It is part of a 90-acre parcel, Quarry Yards, that the tech giant bought in 2021 for a new corporate campus — a project it has indefinitely paused.
Atlanta Civic Circle asked Majors how the city plans to develop the former industrial site — and what it will take to turn empty land into affordable housing.
Read our full Q&A with Majors here.
Upcoming event: Abundant Housing Atlanta explains how local zoning policy affects you
Abundant Housing Atlanta is hosting a seminar next month with experts from the National Zoning Atlas to unpack the complexities of local zoning policies.
The event, called Mapping the Future: Understanding Atlanta’s Zoning Landscape, will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. on Dec. 8 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library (101 Auburn Ave. NE). Local expert Eric Kronberg of Kronberg Urbanists + Architects will explain the real world implications of our region’s zoning.
Click here to RSVP.
Today’s newsletter was written by Sean Keenan and edited by Meredith Hobbs. Your donation makes Housing Happenings and ACC’s housing reporting possible.