February 24, 2026 / Basic Needs, Housing

A Major Share of Local Homelessness Is Hidden in Extended-Stay HotelsImage

A January 2026 countywide assessment led by the Single Parent Alliance & Resource Center (SPARC), in partnership with the Georgia State University’s Center on Health and Homelessness and School of Public Health, set out to document and better understand families living in extended-stay hotels across DeKalb County. Through door-to-door enumeration, surveys, and analysis of living conditions, the project captures a population largely excluded from traditional homelessness counts, providing new evidence on the scale, drivers, and daily realities of this form of housing instability, and revealing critical gaps that have implications for policy, funding, and service delivery.

Key findings:

  • A hidden population far larger than official counts: An estimated 4,664 people — including 1,635 children — are living in extended-stay hotels, far exceeding Continuum of Care and school system counts, revealing a major gap in how homelessness is measured.

  • Hotels as de facto long-term housing: Extended-stay properties are functioning as permanent housing because existing systems offer few pathways into stable, affordable homes.

  • Economic shocks drive displacement: Evictions, rising rents, and job disruptions — not individual failings — are the primary reasons families end up in hotels, pointing to structural drivers of housing instability.

  • Families pay more for less stability: Monthly hotel costs often exceed local apartment rents, meaning families are paying above-market prices for a single room without tenant protections or long-term security.

  • Most families are working but blocked by barriers: Despite high employment rates, upfront costs, income thresholds, and credit requirements prevent families from securing leases, trapping them in a cycle of temporary housing.

  • Implications for planning and resource allocation: Excluding these families from official counts risks underestimating need and misdirecting funding, while the new data provide a stronger foundation for targeted housing strategies and prevention efforts.

Read the full report here.

January 27, 2026 / Housing

Housing Supply Lags Far Behind Low-Income Need in GeorgiaImage

The Builders Patch Housing Count Dashboard tracks the scale of the rental housing shortage nationwide and in Georgia, pairing hard numbers with local housing news to ground the data in real-world context and show where affordability pressures are most acute.

Key takeaways:

  • Across the U.S., there is a severe shortage of affordable rental housing for the lowest-income households, with 25 states facing critical gaps, 82% of households earning under 50% of AMI rent-burdened, and an estimated nationwide shortage of 5.1 million affordable units

  • Housing strain is most concentrated among the lowest-income renters, underscoring that affordability challenges are not evenly distributed across income levels

  • In Georgia, housing affordability remains out of reach for many low-income renters, with only 76 affordable units available for every 100 low-income renter households

  • The state faces a shortfall of more than 80,000 rental units affordable to households earning 60% of AMI or less

  • Renters make up 35.5% of Georgia households, while 40.7% are low-income and 46.0% are rent-burdened, highlighting how closely housing cost pressures align with income insecurity

Explore the data dashboard here.

March 27, 2025 / Housing

2024 Metro Atlanta Home Sales Hit Half of 2021 LevelsImage

The Research & Analytics Department of the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) analyzed five years of metro Atlanta’s housing trends using Parcl Labs data. The post highlights shifts in home sales, prices, size, and age, showing a slowdown in sales but continued price increases.

The analysis, covering 2020 to 2024, explores how the region’s housing market has evolved post-pandemic, offering key insights for policymakers, homebuyers, and industry professionals.

Key takeaways:

  • Metro Atlanta home sales have declined, with 2024 sales totaling just over 65,000—half of 2021’s total.
  • After a brief rise in 2023, median home size dropped again in 2024 to 2,214 square feet, down 5% from 2020, reflecting a shortage of larger new homes.
  • The median year built for sold homes continues to decline, reaching 1991 in 2024, down from 1995 five years ago.

See the full post here.

November 25, 2024 / Health, Housing

Low-income Latinos in Georgia face deplorable and unstable living conditions.Image

The Latino Community Fund Georgia (LCF) and Ser Familia have released the State of the Latino Community Report, a digital publication that combines data from various sources with insights from experts and community members on key issues.

The report’s housing chapter identifies two major challenges for low-income Latinos in Georgia:

  • Deplorable and unstable living conditions, often exacerbated by abusive landlords.
  • The persistent threat of eviction.

Michael Lucas, Executive Director of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation (AVLF), shares that about 60% of cases at AVLF involve housing repairs tied to health issues, mainly caused by mold and insects that can worsen respiratory problems like asthma.

Read the full report here.

July 30, 2024 / Basic Needs, Housing

Results from 2024 PIT Count for the City of AtlantaImage

The PIT Count takes an annual, unduplicated census of people experiencing homelessness on a one night in the last 10 days of January. Note that the PIT Count covers only people who are either in shelters or unsheltered. Therefore, it should not be viewed as an exact number of people experiencing homelessness. However, it is a useful tool that can be used to estimate characteristics of the City of Atlanta population of people experiencing homelessness and gauge changes over time.

Of the 2,867 persons counted through Atlanta’s 2024 Point-In-Time survey:

  • 92% of families experiencing homelessness are Black.
  • 35% of adults experiencing homelessness are over the age of 55.
  • 61% don’t earn any income of any kind, and 72% of them don’t receive benefits or additional support.

Read the full report here.

April 27, 2024 / Housing

KB: Approximately 715K housing units should be built in the next decade in GeorgiaImage

Enterprise Community Partners, in partnership with Georgia Advancing Communities Together and the Center for Community Progress, engaged KB Advisory Group to analyze trends related to housing underproduction and the increasing gap between working wages and home prices to make the case for investing in Georgia’s State Housing Trust Fund for the homeless and local housing trust funds.

Some key takeaways from the study:

  • Over half a million Georgia households are severely cost-burdened.
  • Black households pay a higher percentage of their household income on housing and housing-related expenses than White households.
  • Limited availability of housing options that are attainable at the wages earned by entry-level wage workers.
  • An estimated 715,000 housing units should be built in the next decade to accommodate future population growth, compensate for years of undersupply, and modernize the housing stock.
  • The state would see billions in added value, local income, and local taxes and hundreds of thousands of local jobs by reaching this goal.

Read the full report here.

February 28, 2024 / General, Hispanic, Housing

New ARC 2050 Population Forecast: Diversity will drive the region’s growthImage

This month, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) published the Series 17 small-area forecasts to support the newly adopted Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). This report provides population forecasts down to the census tract level, and with race and age data at the county level.

Here are the highlights:

  • Diversity will drive the region’s growth: Hispanic and Latino residents are forecast to account for 21% of the region’s population in 2050, compared to 12% today
  • The region’s population of older adults will grow at a fast rate: In 2050, nearly 12% of the region’s population will be aged 75 or older, compared to 5% today.
  • Growth to remain strong, but slower than previously forecast: The new 2050 population forecast is about 700,000 below what was forecast in the previous series adopted in 2020.
  • Fastest growth to occur in outer counties of the 21-county region: Forsyth (79%), Barrow (71%), Paulding (60%), Cherokee (53%), Walton (51%), and Coweta (51%).
  • There will still be a strong population growth in the region’s core, too: The region’s five core counties are forecast to add a total of 812,000 people by 2050, representing nearly half of the region’s total growth.
  • Employment in the Professional, Business and Technical Services sector will pace job growth in the region.

See the full report here.

January 12, 2024 / Housing

Rural counties have rates of residential vacancy from 2 percent to as a high as 32 percentImage

In their recent policy brief, State of Vacant Properties in Rural Georgia, the Center for Community Progress identifies general trends in residential vacancy and distressed properties across rural counties in Georgia to provide a statewide baseline on the quantity and condition of these types of properties.

Key takeaways:

  • Eighty-five rural counties had an “Other” vacant rate above 8 percent in 2017-2021 – “Other” vacant is a term used by the Census to categorize units that are neither being held for future occupancy nor only used seasonally.
  • Vacancies disproportionately impact black households. Rural counties with the highest Black population percentage corresponded with higher vacancy rates in 2017-2021.
  • Telfair County has the highest rate of residential vacancy in rural Georgia, with 32%.
  • Rural counties are disproportionately impacted by negative health factors. In Georgia, rural counties make up the first 33 ranked lowest for health factors according to the 2023 County Health Rankings. These health factors include physical environment and socioeconomic factors.

See the full publication here.

November 28, 2023 / Basic Needs, Eviction, Housing

ULI Atlanta’s ‘Housing at its Core’ Study 2023 updateImage

ULI Atlanta’s housing study was first commissioned in 2017 and released in 2018 to understand the depth and scale of the affordable housing issue across the Atlanta region. The study sought to define the problem in both market and financial terms that appealed to practitioners and developers. The 2023 updated analysis highlights the region’s current challenges in providing affordable housing for all Atlanta regional households.

Some key takeaways:

  • Since 2018, all 5-County core households area grew by 9%. Growth in affordable cost-burdened households outpaced overall household growth – increasing 15%
  • The cost to subsidize the 390,000 households within the region who are currently cost-burdened and making at or below 80% AMI in the 5-County area is $270 million per month.
  • There is currently no ZIP code in the core counties where someone earning 80% or less than the area median income (AMI) can purchase a home at the median income price.

The study defines some of the problems in the affordability crisis to be: rents and home prices growing faster than incomes, cost burden persisting across the five counties, transportation remaining a significant cost, and inequity inhibiting housing choices.

Read the full report here

June 26, 2023 / Basic Needs, Health, Housing, Mental Health

Homelessness in the U.S. has been on the rise since 2017, experiencing an overall increase of 6 percent.Image

The 2023 edition of the State of Homelessness report shows that, according to the January 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) count, 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness across America. Using data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the National Alliance to End Homelessness provides an overview of the scope of the issue in the U.S., illustrating emerging trends. Some key facts:

  • Homelessness has been on the rise since 2017, experiencing an overall increase of 6 percent.
  • In 2022, counts of individuals (421,392 people) and chronically homeless individuals (127,768) reached record highs in the history of data collection.
  • Unsheltered rates are also trending upward, impacting most racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups.
  • Homeless services systems continued to expand the availability of both temporary and permanent beds in 2022, but these resources still fall short of reaching everyone in need.
  • Homelessness rose by a modest 0.3% from 2020 to 2022, a period marked by both pandemic-related economic disruptions and robust investments of federal resources into human services.

Explore Georgia’s COC dashboards here.

A note on the data: Point-in-time data are one of two common ways to quantify the homeless population. The other is through school districts as mandated by the Federal McKinney-Vento Act. Keep both sources and their definitions of homelessness in mind when analyzing this kind of data.

March 1, 2023 / Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Equity, General, Health, Housing, Policy, Workforce

The State of Black GeorgiaImage

“The State of Black Georgia is an educational tool and call to action for Black Georgians, public and private sector stakeholders and the general public that can inform civic engagement, non-profit organizations, elected officials, businesses, policy makers, grass roots organizations, philanthropists, faith-based organizations, researchers, advocates, and other key stakeholders. Together, we can promote inclusive economic development, influential partnerships, and implementation of best practice models that foster overall improvement in conditions for Georgia’s Black residents and the state as a whole.”

From the report:

  • The median wealth of Blacks will fall to zero by 2053 if no action is taken.
  • The percentage of Georgia Black students failing to read at third-grade level was 36%, a 25%
  • increase over the pandemic.
  • Approximately 50% of the inmates admitted in the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2021
  • were Black, yet Black Georgians make up 32% of the State’s population.
  • Fifty-four percent of infant deaths were Black children.
January 26, 2023 / Basic Needs, Housing

Demand for rental assistance on the riseImage

Based on 2-1-1 service requests, the demand for rental assistance has been on the rise through the holiday season. Service requests are largely concentrated in South Fulton zip codes.

Explore the data in the right panel of this page or with the full dashboard. This data is provided by United Way of Greater Atlanta and is updated monthly.

If you are in need of housing assistance or other services, call 2-1-1 or visit 211online.unitedwayatlanta.org.

December 12, 2022 / Basic Needs, Eviction, Housing, Policy

Eviction filings back to pre-pandemic levelsImage

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve been tracking eviction filings from Metro Atlanta counties to understand the time and geographic trends.

It’s clear the federal moratoriums prevented the “eviction tsunami” we heard so much about in 2020 and 2021, but even after the moratoriums, a tidal wave never came.

But as we continue to track the data (currently through November 2022), we’ve seen filing levels steadily rise, matching pre-pandemic levels since late summer.

January 28, 2022 / Basic Needs, Equity, Housing

Preliminary findings from Atlanta’s recent homeless count indicate the pandemic likely exacerbated homelessness in the city.Insight

Atlanta recently conducted its annual “Point in Time” count to evaluate the number of homeless individuals in the city. The count was canceled in 2021 due to the pandemic, but 3,240 people were counted in the city of Atlanta in 2020. The official numbers for the 2022 count will not be released until later in the year, but recent trends have shown that the pandemic may have worsened homelessness. Recently, more people have been sleeping outdoors rather than in shelters. In Atlanta, there are 2,800 beds available in shelters, but many individuals have turned down a bed due to COVID-19 concerns. Another new trend has emerged: there are more individuals that are newly homeless than ever before. There is some good news, though. As many as 700 previously homeless individuals were able to secure stable housing with pandemic-relief funding.

Takeaway: Reducing homelessness in the wake of the pandemic will rely on improved housing aid and policy as well as creative sheltering options to safely house individuals.

December 8, 2021 / Eviction, Housing

Contrary to fears of a massive surge in evictions after the CDC Eviction Moratorium ended in August, recent data show evictions in the past three months are still lower than pre-pandemic levels.Image

A recent Eviction Lab analysis monitoring more than 30 cities across the country found that eviction filings increased after the CDC moratorium ended in August but remained lower than pre-pandemic levels. Atlanta was not one of the cities included in the Eviction Lab analysis, but data from the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Atlanta Region Eviction Tracker show that Atlanta also followed this trend. The five core metro Atlanta counties averaged 7,500 evictions during the moratorium compared to 10,000, on average, in the three months since the moratorium ended. Comparatively, there were around 13,000 evictions during the same time span in 2019. Eviction tracking data might not tell the whole story, though. Eviction trackers can only monitor cases filed in court. Displacement due to lease expiration, illegal evictions, or other informal methods may have become more common since the start of the moratorium, especially for undocumented individuals who wish to remain out of the court system. 

Takeaway: Emergency rental assistance and awareness efforts should target renters vulnerable to informal evictions.

October 12, 2021 / Equity, Housing

As Atlanta rents rises dramatically, the uneven burden affects Black and Hispanic renters the mostImage

“Rents have risen dramatically in 2021 in metro Atlanta and Black households are spending the largest portion of their income on rent in comparison to other races. According to a new analysis by Zillow, rent affordability for all renters in metro Atlanta is 29.2%, which is almost a full percentage point over 28.4% in 2019. The average rent is $1,827 as of August, which is up 20.4% year over year and up 3% month over month. Black households in the Atlanta area are spending 31.4% of their income on rent. In comparison, Latinx are paying 30%; whites are paying 27.2%; and Asians are paying 23.1%.” (CBS46, Zillow)

Takeaway: Emergency rental assistance programs and funding should prioritize Black and Hispanic communities

November 18, 2020 / Basic Needs, Housing, Refugee

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Under the new presidency, refugee resettlement is expected to surge—from 15,000 to as much as 125,000 globally. Resettlement agencies in Atlanta are collaborating to best serve their clients while understanding and meeting demand for employment, housing, health, and other services. [link] (WABE)

August 22, 2020 / Hispanic, Housing

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Undocumented and mixed status households don’t qualify for federal aid including City of Atlanta/United Way eviction relief program (Latino Community Fund Georgia)

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