A new report from Georgia State University reveals more than 4,600 people in DeKalb County are living in extended-stay hotels and paying more than average rental costs.
Over the course of three months, from September to November of 2025, a team of 50 GSU and community volunteers went door-to-door at 42 hotels to talk with families and individuals to better understand their housing circumstances. The survey gathered quality of life details such as household demographics, income, educational impact and barriers to permanent housing, as well as the living conditions at the respective hotels.
The release of the study comes as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announces plans for a $50 million initiative that aims to address homelessness across the state of Georgia.
For a special themed show focusing on homelessness in DeKalb County, “Closer Look” program host Rose Scott talked with GSU professors Shannon Self-Brown and April Ballard. The two professors lead GSU’s Center on Health and Homelessness and are the co-authors of the new study. They talked with Scott about some of the key findings of their report, including that 78% of households had at least one person who was working, the monthly average hotel cost for a hotel was $1,852, which exceeds the average rent of $1,789 in DeKalb County.
The second half of the program focused on solutions. Scott talked with Greg White, the executive director of A Home for Everyone in DeKalb, Andrea Brantley, the executive director of Family Promise of North Fulton/DeKalb, and Wanda Hunter, the program manager for Family Promise of North Fulton/DeKalb. They provided reactions to the survey and talked more about their respective organizations working to address homelessness in DeKalb County.
