Fulton won’t fully fund homeless services?
To local homeless advocates, there is a glaring omission in Fulton County’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget: Over $2 million to provide supportive services to formerly unhoused people who will live in 230 apartments being built by the city of Atlanta is nowhere in sight.
According to Cathryn Vassell, CEO of local homeless services nonprofit Partners for Home, Fulton had years ago pledged to support the city of Atlanta’s Home First initiative, which is providing permanent supportive housing, for 30 years.
“But on Dec. 10, at what we thought was a planning meeting for 2026, the county dropped a bomb on us by announcing they only had services funding for 146 of the 302 units currently online [in 2027], and no funding for the 230 units coming online in 2026,” she said.
Atlanta announced the Home First initiative in 2019, allocating $50 million through Invest Atlanta, United Way, and other local partners to build 550 permanent supportive residences for unhoused people. At that time, the Fulton Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to subsidize wraparound services, such as mental health and substance use treatment, for the new housing units, according to an agreement signed by the county and Partners for Home.
The county estimates supportive services cost $8,750 per unit per year, making the full deal worth $4.8 million annually once all 550 units are inhabited, according to Vassell.
“They are now rescinding that promise, leaving the 230 new units coming online without services for 2026 and jeopardizing $100 million worth of affordable housing developments across our city,” Vassell said in a Jan. 9 email to private developers and landlords involved in the Home First initiative.
Vassell has launched a lobbying campaign in response to the anticipated shortfall, urging Partners for Home’s private development partners to pressure the Fulton commissioners to reconsider its FY26 allocations. Fulton is expected to finalize its budget this month for FY2026, which started Jan. 1.
Fulton County told Atlanta Civic Circle in a statement Monday that the county already invests more than $20 million each year for “community-based mental health services for children and adults,” and that it remains committed to providing case management services for Partners for Home’s 302 permanent supportive housing units.
“This commitment totals $2.4 million, [including] $1.9 million from Fulton County at $500,000 that we successfully sought from the state of Georgia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities,” the statement said.
Volunteers needed for Atlanta, Fulton unhoused headcounts
Fulton County and the city of Atlanta are seeking volunteers to pitch in on the annual headcount of the region’s homeless populations.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) mandates that local governments comb their communities once a year, typically in January, to conduct a census of their unhoused neighbors. The Point-in-Time Count’s findings are vital to local policymaking and funding for unhoused people.
Fulton’s housing leaders and a small army of volunteers will scatter across the county over two nights later this month: Canvassing in South Fulton will take place Jan. 22 at 6 p.m., and the effort will kick off for North Fulton on Jan. 23 at 5 p.m. → Click here to register as a volunteer.
The city of Atlanta’s Point-in-Time count will take place over on the night of Jan. 26 and during the day from Jan. 27 until Feb. 2. →Volunteers can sign up here.
Federal turmoil threatens homelessness funding
Over 800 Atlanta households who rely on federal Continuum of Care grants to avoid sliding back into homelessness remain in limbo amid disarray at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
HUD announced a sweeping overhaul of the grant renewal process in November for the Continuum of Care program, which distributes nearly $4 billion annually for permanent supportive housing for unhoused people. Many of the yearly Continuum of Care grants will expire by the end of February, so HUD’s November announcement blindsided housing and service providers, prompting a lawsuit from a coalition of states.
But a month after a federal judge instructed HUD to continue renewing routine homelessness grants, local housing groups still lack any clear guidance about how the new grant application process will work.
“This is just making what is already a really challenging job and ecosystem exponentially more difficult and confusing,” said Vassell, the Partners for Home CEO.
Read ACC’s full report on how the Trump administration aims to upend how the United States houses people experiencing homelessness.
HEARD ON HOUSING
DeKalb CEO hosts lecture on state of housing
DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson will host “A candidate conversation on the state of housing in America” on Jan. 20 at the Porter Sanford III Performing Arts Center, 3181 Rainbow Dr.
A reception is from 5:15 to 6 p.m., with a discussion from 6-7:30 p.m.
Panelists include Alan Ferguson, the county’s chief housing officer; Bruce Marks, CEO of Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America; and Jacob Vallo, the county’s chief development officer.
→ Register to attend in-person or watch online
57 affordable apartments opening in English Avenue
Westside Future Fund and city of Atlanta leaders will cut the ribbon this Friday on two new affordable housing complexes in the Westside’s English Avenue neighborhood.
Debuting at 839 Joseph E. Boone Blvd. and 646 Echo St., the developments comprise 57 new apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedroom units, according to a Westside Future Fund press release.
The Joseph E. Boone location also has three ground-floor retail spaces earmarked for local small businesses.
Former Darlington apartments await affordable housing overhaul
Buckhead’s former Darlington apartment tower is bound for an affordable housing makeover.
Developer Antica Properties purchased the 2025 Peachtree Rd. property last week for $90 million, announcing that it will convert a third of the circa-1951 complex’s 623 units into affordable workforce housing, according to SaportaReport.
Famous for the “Atlanta’s Population Now” sign planted out front, the tower suffered from years of mismanagement before its 2022 rehab and rebrand as The Lofts at Twenty25.
The new owner’s mixed-income overhaul is funded in part by a $10 million loan recently approved by the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation, a nonprofit the city established in 2023 to champion affordable housing construction.
Thank you for reading the first Housing Happenings newsletter of 2026. It was written by Sean Keenan and edited by Meredith Hobbs. Have tips, corrections, or questions? Just reply to this email.
CORRECTION: This post has been updated to reflect that the city of Atlanta’s Point-in-Time count will take place on the night of Jan. 26, and daytime counts will run from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2.