Federal, regional and local homeless advocates gathered today in Smyrna to discuss homelessness in Cobb County.  The forum focused on a variety of topics including types of supportive services offered in the county, funding to address the challenges faced by the community and shelter alternatives.

Marietta/Cobb Continuum of Care conducted the 2019 Point-In-Time Count earlier this year, enumerating the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population on one night in January in order to get a snapshot of homelessness in the county. According to Irene Barton of the Cobb Collaborative, Cobb County had about 130 homeless people at that time, including children and veterans.

“We have roughly about 130 people for whom we have not found homes,” said County Commissioner Mike Boyce. “We can fix that. With what we have in this room and what we can do with government we can find homes but we need to work together. We want to leave today with a plan where we have a goal that nobody in Cobb County, regardless of your circumstances or who you are, will not be taken care of if you find yourself being homeless. We need to make sure everybody in the future has a place to stay.”

Cobb County's nonprofit organizations play a vital role in the success of the community by serving those in need.

“From a visual perspective homelessness is increasing in our community but we don’t necessarily have policy that’s addressing this issue,” said District 4 Commissioner Lisa Cupid. “The liaison in this matter have been our non-profit community here but I think it’s helpful for our elected officials to be engaged in the discussion to see what we can be doing to help address this concern.”

“I was impressed that here in Cobb County they really have a coalition of leadership that has come together to address the issue of homelessness,” said Dr. Joe Savage, Regional Coordinator of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Attendees also got to tour a Tiny House from Core Housing Solutions that was on display at the session.

A group of participants will be forming a working group to implement some of what they learned today to address the homeless situation in our community.