ATLANTA — Homelessness in Atlanta increased 6% from 2025 to 2026, according to the city’s newly released Point in Time Count, a yearly survey used to track homelessness trends across the city.
The report found at least 3,060 people were experiencing homelessness this year. The increase follows a 1% rise from 2024 to 2025.
“Any increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness is concerning to us,” Cathryn Vassell, CEO of Partners for Home, told Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers.
Vassell said economic pressures continue to be one of the biggest drivers behind the increase.
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“Our biggest challenge is the economic conditions and affordability challenges across our community, and the lack of income, keeping pace with the cost of living,” Vassell said.
Partners for Home launched the Downtown Rising initiative as part of a $235 million Atlanta Rising campaign aimed at ending unsheltered homelessness downtown, particularly as Atlanta prepares to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
Part of that effort includes building rapid housing developments across the city. One complex on Atlanta’s southwest side has more than 100 units for people who were previously homeless.
“We set a big goal of housing 400 unsheltered people who are downtown by the end of last year. We’re now at 490 people rehoused,” Vassell said.
Still, some people currently living in encampments say they feel they have been overlooked.
“They promised me housing as well, and they left me out here homeless and stranded,” one woman living in an encampment said.
“There are a lot of people out here who were promised too,” another person added.
The people Rogers spoke with said they have been living in tents, some for weeks, months, and others years.
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Some of the encampments are located not far from rapid housing developments.
“It makes us feel terrible really, knowing that we know it’s there, and they don’t want to put us in there. It’s like crazy,” one person said.
Others said finding resources remains difficult.
“I just wish they would help us more, and put us in places, so the people won’t be out here in the streets like this,” another person said.
Youth homelessness also increased 4% from last year, according to the report. One 19-year-old woman told Rogers her mother went to prison, leaving her homeless for the past two years and struggling to find resources designed for people her age.
Partners for Home said its goal is to house 4,000 people over the next two years, but officials say the challenge is that more people continue entering the homelessness system
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