Do the streets of downtown Atlanta feel different than a year ago?

They should by now, according to a vast cohort of organizations and city leaders confronting homeless. 

Officials with Partners for Home, a local nonprofit striving to end homelessness in Atlanta, report this week they’ve reach a “major milestone” in an “ambitious” effort to tackle one of the most pervasive issues in U.S. cities today: More than 400 people formerly living unsheltered on downtown streets have been moved into housing considered stable and safe. 

That’s a product of the Downtown Rising initiative—the first phase of a $235-million, multi-year campaign called Atlanta Rising that kicked off last year. And what’s working in downtown can be scaled up across the city to make homelessness a brief, non-recurring episode as opposed to a permanent way of life, according to Partners for Home leadership.

Partners for Home has been working with the City of Atlanta and more than 170 organizations as part of what’s called the Atlanta Continuum of Care. 

Overview of container housing, greenspaces, and an amenities building at The Melody. The Beck Group; courtesy of City of Atlanta

Key successes include more than 400 permanent, supportive housing units that have been delivered. Four rapid-housing projects completed so far include: downtown’s The Melody, a village of former shipping containers; a building rehab in Old Fourth Ward called 729 Bonaventure; and Reynoldstown motel conversion Ralph David House. 

The most recent addition to the rapid-housing stock is the two-building, 100-unit Waterworks, a modular-style development in Berkeley Park. 

Just south of downtown, another project at 405 Cooper St. in Mechanicsville broke ground on its first phase in June. The approach there will be different, in that it’s mixed-income, with 100 modular-built units of supportive housing alongside 70 townhomes priced at market-rate, project leaders have said.  

How the two Waterworks buildings were positioned next to the Skyline West apartments (top right). Atlantica Properties/Partners for Homes/City of Atlanta; designs, Niles Bolton Associates

All the above is part of a race to bring 500 new supportive units online by this spring—or what Partners for Home described in an update this week as “record time.” (The 2026 FIFA World Cup isn’t mentioned in the update, though recent encampment clearing efforts downtown have been tied to a June deadline for World Cup.) 

“This is about ending unsheltered homelessness humanely and permanently,” said Cathryn Vassell, Partners for Home CEO, in a statement. “[Downtown Rising is] not just reducing homelessness downtown; we’re demonstrating a model that can scale across Atlanta.” 

“Over the past year … as I walk around downtown, I see a difference,” added AJ Robinson, Downtown Atlanta, Inc. president. “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.”

As a next phase, the nonprofit and its city partners are planning to expand the Downtown Rising approach as a city-wide, rapid rehousing and support model. But that’ll take financial support, of course. 

Partners for Home today has raised 65 percent of the $235 million leaders say it needs to implement the work at scale around all Atlanta neighborhoods. Work with private and public partners continues to help fill that gap, per agency officials.

In the meantime, the Downtown Rising outreach and its shelter partners—Mercy Care, Intown Cares, Safehouse, Gateway, Urban Alchemy, Mend Culture, Salvation Army, and Gateway Center—will continue focusing on former encampment locations and public spaces. 

According to Partners for Home officials, the nonprofit has rehoused more than 15,000 households over the past decade. Of those, 96 percent remain stably housed. 

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