METRO ATLANTA — Fulton County’s annual survey of homelessness counted 312 people this January, a 7 percent decrease from its 2023 total.
Each year, the county solicits volunteers to survey its unsheltered population for the Fulton County Continuum of Care Point in Time Count. The canvassing does not include sites within the city limits of Atlanta.
Point in Time counts provide lawmakers and funding organizations with information on the number, demographics and characteristics of people experiencing homelessness.
In Fulton County, the Continuum of Care promotes funding and programs to combat homelessness in Fulton cities. Atlanta has its own Continuum of Care.
Data is then sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which uses the results to determine federal funding to address homelessness.
But, the Point in Time Count is not comprehensive. It is meant to provide a “snapshot” of homelessness in the county on two nights of the year. The weather is often cold during the canvassing, and those living in hotels or motels, transitional housing, emergency shelters, hospitals and jails are not tallied in the street count.
The organized count covered the cities of Johns Creek, Sandy Springs, Milton, Alpharetta and Roswell Jan. 23. South Fulton County was canvassed Jan. 24, and Mountain Park was surveyed through Jan. 30.
In North Fulton, the first shift of volunteers ran from 8 to 11 p.m., followed by a second, smaller shift from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Fulton County Department of Community Development Health and Human Services Division Manager Dawn Butler said 16 volunteers performed the South Fulton count, and 63 volunteers set out in North Fulton.
Butler said the 2024 canvassing found 154 unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness, as well as 158 who were sheltered.
In the 2023 count, the Continuum of Care recorded 337…
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