ATLANTA — Members of the Atlanta City Council are pushing for an audit of the Atlanta Housing Help Center.
A resolution filed last week by Councilmembers Kelsea Bond, Jason H. Winston, Liliana Bakhtiari, Antonio Lewis, Jason Dozier, Matt Westmoreland and Eshé Collins asked the Atlanta Auditor’s Office to work with the Housing Commission to conduct a performance and outcomes audit of the help center.
The resolution cites eviction filing rates in Atlanta as being among the highest in the United States.
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With eviction an ongoing issue in Atlanta, and the broader metro area, the city council said preventing evictions is a critical tool to promote long-term stability and reduce homelessness.
That’s the purpose of the Housing Help Center, which operates as a referral-based system to help residents connect with nonprofit providers to get housing assistance.
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However, members of the Atlanta City Council say they need to know if the Housing Help Center’s work is resulting in measurable outcomes, such as how many evictions it has assisted in preventing, how it impacts housing stabilization and how it assists access to financial aid.
The higher eviction rate, according to the council document, adds to housing instability, displacement and broader social and economic challenges for Atlanta residents.
With the majority of residents in Atlanta being renters, rather than buyers, the city councilmembers said evictions reflect “ongoing challenges in housing affordability and access.”
They also said housing costs across the region have increased significantly while wages have not.
With the FIFA World Cup 2026 just weeks from arriving in Atlanta, an event expected to boost demand for short-term rentals, officials are concerned about how that will affect housing instability and displacement pressures.
The city council resolution says officials need to collect data to evaluate performance, or risk underinvesting in methods to intervene in evictions. They also want to help prevent overburdening “already strained service providers.”
According to the council documents, the resolution will be discussed next at a May 18 Community Development/Human Services Committee meeting.
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