Housing and service providers, the faith-based community, the Fulton County Continuum of Care, and local governments provide a range of housing and services to address the unique needs of people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness in North Fulton County, including homelessness prevention, emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, and a wide range of homelessness services. Yet, both stakeholder input and data from United Way’s 2-1-1 information and referral service indicated continuing high levels of unmet need, as pandemic conditions and a housing affordability crisis continued to impact residents through increasing cost burdens, health concerns, loss of employment or wages, and issues with access to childcare, among other concerns.
Mosaic partnered with the United Way of Greater Atlanta to develop the North Fulton County Homeless Needs Assessment, providing an up-to-date picture of needs related to housing and services for people experiencing homelessness in North Fulton County. Our team’s analysis of homelessness in North Fulton County pulled from a wide range of data sources, including Point-in-Time counts, Fulton County Schools data on student homelessness, requests through United Way’s 2-1-1 system, and the Fulton County Continuum of Care’s Homeless Management Information System. Mosaic engaged in-depth with stakeholders through the project’s steering committee, made up of housing and service providers and Fulton County Continuum of Care members in North Fulton County; a survey of and focus groups with homelessness housing and service providers in North Fulton County; and follow-up data requests and discussion with housing and service providers to confirm available data.
The assessment developed a quantitative and qualitative understanding of homelessness in North Fulton County, including numbers of individuals and households experiencing homelessness, household types, age and gender, shelter status, and other characteristics that may impact housing and service needs; identified housing and service resources available to people who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness in North Fulton County; and outlined priority unmet housing and service needs for people experiencing homelessness in North Fulton County based on resources available, need levels, and stakeholder input.
