Partners for Home, the nonprofit coordinating Atlanta's response to homelessness, says more than 400 people who were living unsheltered on downtown streets have been moved into housing considered stable and safe.
The milestone comes out of Downtown Rising, the first phase of Atlanta Rising - a multi-year, $235 million campaign launched last year. Partners for Home works with the City of Atlanta and more than 170 organizations through what is known as the Atlanta Continuum of Care, and its leadership argues the downtown approach can be scaled citywide.
The mechanism is supportive housing, delivered fast. More than 400 permanent supportive housing units have come online. Four rapid-housing projects have been completed: The Melody, downtown's village built from converted shipping containers at 184 Forsyth St.; 729 Bonaventure, a building rehab in Old Fourth Ward; Ralph David House, a motel conversion in Reynoldstown; and Waterworks, a two-building, 100-unit modular development in Berkeley Park.
A fifth is under way just south of downtown. At 405 Cooper St. in Mechanicsville, a project broke ground on its first phase in June with a different structure - mixed-income, pairing 100 modular units of supportive housing with 70 market-rate townhomes.
All of it feeds a push to bring 500 new supportive units online by spring, which Partners for Home describes as record time.
"This is about ending unsheltered homelessness humanely and permanently," said Cathryn Vassell, the organization's CEO. "Downtown Rising is not just reducing homelessness downtown; we're demonstrating a model that can scale across Atlanta."
AJ Robinson, president of Downtown Atlanta, Inc., framed it in terms of what people notice at street level. "Over the past year, as I walk around downtown, I see a difference," he said. "There's more work to do, but we're making headway - our downtown neighbors and businesses are seeing and feeling the difference because people were connected to housing and support."
The next phase would extend the Downtown Rising model citywide as a rapid rehousing and support program. That depends on money: Partners for Home has raised 65 percent of the $235 million it says the work requires at scale.
Original reporting by Josh Green for Urbanize Atlanta, published March 2026.
