Dickens urges Fulton County to honor homeless services funding
Mayor Andre Dickens has urged Fulton County to honor its commitments to fund wraparound services for people experiencing homelessness, warning that pulling back could jeopardize permanent supportive housing for hundreds of people.
Standing in front of an under-construction supportive housing complex in Mechanicsville on Thursday, Dickens’ message to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners was clear: The county needs to do its part to help fund essential case management, mental health and other wraparound services that help keep the city’s vulnerable population housed.
“The city of Atlanta, we will go first, we will even go last, but we should not and will not go alone,” Dickens said.
“Promises made must be promises kept … or see you at the ballot.”
The dispute centers on a 2019 agreement and Memorandum of Understanding with the county to fund wraparound services for more than 30 years to support Atlanta’s $50 million Home First initiative, a public-private partnership to create 550 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people.
The county is currently funding only about 300 of those units, according to District 4 Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory, who spoke at Thursday’s news conference.
Partners for HOME CEO Cathryn Vassell said county commissioners told her organization in December that they were withdrawing more than $2 million in funding for wraparound services for units being built or opening in 2026 — and that starting in 2027, the county would only fund services for 150 out of the 550 units.
Partners for HOME runs the city’s strategy to combat homelessness.
Though $2 million might seem like a drop in the ocean, Vassell said hundreds of millions of dollars had been invested in the units based on promises that the county would fund wraparound services.
“Without that, permanent supportive housing falls apart,” Vassell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Dickens said his administration has heard that Fulton County commissioners were attempting to back away from a promise to provide $4.8 million annually for 30 years.
In an interview, Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts disputed that. He said that while the agreement mentions long-term support, funding is not automatic and is subject to yearly budget approval.
He noted this year’s county budget was not yet finalized, but that it has already committed $2.6 million for housing that is already built.
Pitts said the county would find room in its budget for the remaining units that come online in 2026, but funding for future years has yet to be determined.
“Read my lips: that $2.1 million will be included in the 2026 budget that we’re going to approve on Wednesday,” Pitts said.
Commissioner Ivory said the dispute was not just about funding for a single year, but rather is over the county’s long term commitments to the city’s unhoused population.
“Fulton County is already paying for homelessness through jail operations, emergency care and crisis services. Supportive housing costs less and produces better outcomes,” Ivory said.
The wrangling with the county comes as Partners for HOME is still reeling from a Trump administration shift away from permanent housing toward transitional programs that has put as many as 600 Atlanta households at risk of losing their homes.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced in November a break with the decades-long Housing First strategy to address homelessness, moving instead toward temporary housing with mandated mental health and addiction treatment.
The future of the changes are undetermined, after California Attorney General Rob Bonta alongside other states, local governments and homelessness advocates, challenged the changes to the federal Continuum of Care program in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The Continuum of Care program funds homelessness services.
In December, Judge Mary S. McElroy issued a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of HUD’s changes as the litigation moves forward.
The city’s dispute with the county was offset by Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposal for a $50 million Homelessness Response Grant.
The funding he announced this week would be paired with matching funds from local governments, nonprofit organizations and private partners, though the Georgia Legislature first needs to approve it.
Atlanta City Council members Jason Dozier (District 4) and Liliana Bakhtiari (District 5) were also at the mayor’s news conference.
In an interview with the AJC earlier this week, Bakhtiari accused Fulton County commissioners of “playing with fire and bartering with people’s lives,” saying county funding was already inadequate given the size of the county’s tax base.
“The City of Atlanta estimates that we spend between $40 million and $60 million a year carrying the water for Fulton County,” Bakhtiari said.
Pitts said the county already invests $20 million each year in community-based mental health services for children and adults.
About the Author
Matt Reynolds is a housing reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's local government team.
