Fulton County's newest homelessness census found 323 people experiencing homelessness outside the city of Atlanta this year, a jump of more than 30% from 2025 that county officials say reflects both rising need and a shrinking pool of housing resources. The count included 177 people staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing and 146 people who were unsheltered, with more than half of that unsheltered population concentrated in just three suburban cities.
The figures come from Fulton County's annual Point-in-Time Count, a report described by 95.5 WSB, which found that homelessness in Fulton County outside Atlanta rose more than 30% year over year. East Point, Roswell and Alpharetta together accounted for 57.5% of the unsheltered count, according to the outlet's reporting. Stan Wilson, director of the Fulton County Department of Community Development, said the count helps officials understand the needs of people experiencing homelessness across the county, adding that the data supports efforts to connect people with housing and services and helps guide planning and collaboration with community partners.
The 2025 count had identified just 241 people experiencing homelessness outside Atlanta, itself a reported 28.9% drop that officials attributed at the time to severe weather and operational undercounting, according to Fulton County Government's own point-in-time reporting. Measured against that 2025 baseline, this year's total of 323 represents a 34% increase. The county's Continuum of Care says it will use the new data to expand housing resources, improve services, and guide outreach efforts going forward.
A Shrinking Housing Inventory
Part of the pressure comes from the supply side. Fulton County's housing inventory decreased by 8.7% ahead of this year's report, with a decline in rapid re-housing capacity contributing to that drop. Fewer available units mean fewer options for outreach workers trying to move people from shelters or the street into stable housing, even as the number of people needing that help keeps climbing.
The increase outside Atlanta is not an isolated trend. In the city itself, Partners for HOME's 2026 Point-in-Time Count recorded a 6% overall rise in homelessness over 2025, according to the3keys.org. Atlanta and Fulton County outside Atlanta operate separate federally recognized Continuums of Care, but both jurisdictions reported homelessness increases this year, a sign that housing affordability pressures are hitting the region broadly rather than any single municipality.
Suburban Homelessness Looks Different
During this year's count, Fulton County District 2 Commissioner Bob Ellis noted that suburban homelessness in North Fulton frequently involves employed people living in their vehicles while trying to hold onto jobs and keep their kids in school, according to county coverage of the count. That pattern helps explain why North Fulton cities like Roswell and Alpharetta showed up so heavily in the unsheltered tally alongside East Point.
The county's data also shows a sharp demographic shift. Adult-only households made up 85.9% of all unhoused households counted this year, up from 69.3% in 2025, meaning families with children accounted for a smaller share of the total than in previous years. That shift toward single, working-age adults complicates outreach, since many of the standard shelter and family-housing programs aren't designed around someone sleeping in a car between shifts.
Funding Fights Between County and City
Money remains a sticking point even as need grows. In July 2025, Fulton County put $5.36 million toward 160 nonprofit partners through its Community Services Program, with $827,000 earmarked specifically for homelessness services countywide — a commitment Hoodline covered in an earlier funding breakdown. But in January, homeless service leaders reported that Fulton County had left more than $2 million in proposed fiscal year 2026 funding out of its budget, money intended to support 230 permanent housing units built by the city of Atlanta, according to Atlanta Civic Circle. The county had previously pledged long-term service support for the city's Home First program, making the omission a visible point of friction between the two governments even as both grapple with rising counts.
The county has also moved to shore up its intake system. Last August, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners approved a $398,657 agreement with 24/7 Gateway, LLC to manage coordinated intake and assessment at the county's North and South Homeless Assessment Center offices through August of this year, funded primarily through a HUD Coordinated Intake grant. In May, the county's Continuum of Care opened its local competition for fiscal year 2026 HUD grant funding, inviting providers to apply for new and expanded housing projects as the county tries to rebuild the inventory it lost.
A Legal Backdrop Shaping Local Options
Any local response also has to work within Georgia Senate Bill 62, which took effect in 2023 and bars local governments and law enforcement across Fulton County from adopting policies that would stop officers from enforcing municipal bans on public camping, sleeping, or sidewalk obstruction. That law narrows the range of tools cities have for managing encampments even as the population needing shelter grows, layering legal constraints on top of the funding and inventory challenges county officials are already navigating.
Fulton County's direct HUD entitlement grants, which fund Community Development Block Grants and Emergency Solutions Grants, cover unincorporated areas and smaller municipalities but exclude Roswell, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, and South Fulton — cities that receive federal homelessness funding directly or run their own entitlement programs. That patchwork of funding streams means the very suburbs driving this year's unsheltered increase, including Roswell and Alpharetta, largely manage their own federal dollars separately from the county's broader Continuum of Care.
