How housing and shelter help works in AtlantaA short guide: who to call first and what to expect.
If you have nowhere to sleep tonight, start early in the day, because beds fill by afternoon. In Atlanta, the main place to ask for a shelter bed or a housing program is the Gateway Center at 275 Pryor Street SW, 404-215-6600. Staff meet with people on weekdays, and it is best to get there early in the morning. Men, women and families go to different shelters, so say who is with you. If you are 18 to 24, Covenant House Georgia takes walk-ins at any hour. On freezing nights the city opens warming centers, and the Gateway Center is one. Call 404-215-6600 to ask where to go. See emergency shelters.
If you are behind on rent, no single office pays it. Churches and nonprofits each have a small fund that covers part of a month, and most serve only certain ZIP codes. The funds open and close as money comes in, so call 211 and ask what is open this week. The City of Atlanta Housing Help Center can also tell you which programs fit you. Have your lease, a photo ID, proof of income and the late notice ready. See rent help and help with utility bills.
If you get eviction papers, you have 7 days to answer the court. Answering is free and you can do it without a lawyer. If you do not answer, you can lose without seeing a judge. Call Atlanta Legal Aid at 404-524-5811 the same day. Tenants in Atlanta can also walk into the Housing Court Assistance Center. Your landlord cannot change the locks, put your things out, or shut off your power or water without a court order.
For a place with lower rent, expect to wait. The waiting list for housing vouchers (Section 8) is closed most of the time. Apartment buildings with lower rents keep their own lists, so call each one and ask to be added.
The Decatur Housing Authority is the public housing agency for the City of Decatur. It runs low-cost apartment communities and Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers that help families, seniors, and veterans pay rent. It also offers after-school programs, summer camp, and college scholarships for people who live in its communities.
Frontline Response, the new name of Atlanta Dream Center, helps men and women get out of homelessness and sex trafficking. They offer street outreach, case management, a warming center in cold weather, and free shuttle rides to job and life-skills programs. They also run free after-school programs for kids to help keep them safe.
Atlanta Habitat for Humanity helps families in Atlanta and South Fulton County own a home. It runs a first-time homebuyer program, critical home repairs for homeowners, a ReStore, scholarships, and ways to volunteer.
Care & Conserve is the City of Atlanta water department's program for people who have trouble paying their water bills. It can help eligible City of Atlanta water customers with past-due water and sewer bills. Eligible homeowners can also get free plumbing repairs through a partner group, Nehemiah Project CDC.
Community Friendship is an Atlanta nonprofit that helps adults who live with serious mental health conditions build skills for living, learning and working. It offers supportive housing, homeless outreach, peer support and help finding and keeping a job. Referrals come through its contact page or a referral form.
Fulton Atlanta Community Action Authority is a nonprofit that helps low-income people in Fulton County and the City of Atlanta. It helps with energy bills through LIHEAP and with emergency money help through an online application. It also offers empowerment classes.
Presbyterian Homes of Georgia is a nonprofit Christian ministry that runs income-based apartment buildings for active, independent adults age 62 and older. The Atlanta site is Calvin Court in Buckhead. Sister buildings are in Decatur and Swainsboro. Rent is set by your income, and the Atlanta and Decatur buildings are currently taking waitlist applications.
This is the housing voucher office of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA). It helps very low income people and families pay rent for homes in the private market. DCA pays part of the rent straight to the landlord. It also runs special vouchers for groups such as young adults leaving foster care, veterans, and people who are homeless.
Trans Housing Atlanta Program (THAP) helps transgender and non-binary people in metro Atlanta who are homeless or do not have stable housing. They can give up to $500 a year per person for things like rent, housing application fees, and utility bills, when funds are available. A case manager can also help connect you to other resources like SNAP and HOPWA.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is a federal housing agency with an Atlanta office. Its FHA Resource Center answers questions about home loans and avoiding foreclosure, and HUD connects people with housing counselors and takes housing discrimination complaints. The Atlanta office does not directly provide emergency shelter, rent payments, or free lawyers.
Fifth Third Bank is a bank with a branch in downtown Atlanta. Its mortgage team helps people who want to buy a home and can point them to down payment assistance they might qualify for. The Fifth Third Down Payment Assistance program has given up to $3,295 toward a down payment or closing costs, with no payback, for buyers who meet income and home-location rules.
Frontline Response is a Christian nonprofit in Atlanta. It works with people who are homeless and with people caught in sex trafficking, and it runs programs for children. This winter it is teaming up with the City of Decatur and DeKalb County on a warming center for people without housing on dangerously cold nights.
Julia Hands of Love is an Atlanta nonprofit that helps homeless and low-income families. It gives out food, feeds people who are homeless, and helps with rent, utility bills, and finding temporary or permanent housing. It serves people in Fulton, DeKalb, and Cobb counties and welcomes volunteers and donations.
Zion Hill CDC is a nonprofit in East Point that works to end homelessness and poverty, mostly in South Fulton. It helps South Fulton residents with rent, mortgage and utility bills, and it offers motel stays and help moving into a home for people without housing. It also helps some people get free Kaiser health coverage, and its office has a place to search the 2-1-1 database for other help.
City of Refuge is a faith-based campus on Atlanta's Westside that helps people and families move out of crisis. It offers housing for women, children, and men, free job training, youth programs, a school, a campus kitchen, and an on-site health clinic. For housing, call and leave a message, because walk-ins are not taken.
SUMMECH is a nonprofit housing counseling agency approved by HUD. It works in Mechanicsville in Atlanta. It teaches classes on buying and keeping a home, gives money and housing counseling, and rents out apartments and houses.
Cascade United Methodist Church is a church with two campuses in Atlanta: one in Southwest Atlanta and one in Midtown on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Its Community Fund can help people in Fulton and DeKalb counties who are behind on rent, mortgage, or utility bills, but it is not emergency help and the application opens only one hour a month. The church also runs a grief support group, a homeless ministry, help for people coming home from prison, and programs for youth, seniors, and veterans.
Making A Way Housing is an Atlanta agency for single adults who are homeless. It offers emergency, transitional, and permanent supportive housing on its property, along with case management. It also runs HIV prevention, recovery, and job help programs.
Metro Fair Housing Services is a nonprofit civil rights group in Atlanta that has worked since 1974 to stop housing discrimination. It takes housing discrimination complaints, gives free housing counseling, teaches classes on fair housing, and tests and investigates possible violations.
The Salvation Army Metro Atlanta Center of Hope is at 469 Marietta Street. It offers emergency and longer-term places to stay for men, women, and families with children who have no home. It also has a drug treatment program, help finding permanent housing, and housing for veterans and people leaving prison.
