The World Cup is coming to Atlanta. Advocates want unhoused residents protected, not pushed aside

Advocates for the unhoused are working to ensure they aren't pushed off the streets or out of town as the FIFA Men's World Cup comes to Atlanta.

"We wanted to make sure we weren't locking up the homeless population or driving them out of areas," said Michael Collins, the director of  Play Fair ATL.

Ronald Henderson isn't from Atlanta but he's lived in the city here long enough to remember the last time it was center stage for a world event: the 1996 Olympic Games.
      
"It was pretty bad," Henderson said. 

Bad, because Henderson and his friends had encounters with law enforcement simply for being on the street.

"Just going to jail for walking down the street, you know? You know, just, 'You want to go to jail or do you want to go out of town?" Henderson said. 

His niece Melody Rosser has similar memories.

"I had a lot of friends who were unhoused but at the time," Rosser said. "When the Olympics came, my mom made me stay in the house for two weeks before the Olympics." 

She didn't understand why.  

"When I came back to go hang out with my friends on a Saturday at the park, no one was there....I was like, man, did the rapture come?" Rosser said. 

The Brookings Institution reports that 9,000 homeless people were arrested in 1996 in Atlanta. Rosser remembers friends also being bussed out. That's why she's a part of Play Fair ATL.

So what is happening to people living on the streets as encampments are being removed by the city?

"They have housed around 500 people, and by all accounts, those are good homes with services," Collins said. 

Coalition members plan to start a resource center, resource page, and pass out flyers while the games are being played to direct people where to go.

"Housing Justice League, we have good relationships with PAD," Collins said.

The Policing Alternatives and Diversions Initiative is opening its doors seven days a week during the World Cup.

"The public can come, they can have snacks, water, air conditioning, use our phone," said Denise White with PAD. "We're going to make this a quiet room, so we actually ordered some cots, and we're actually going to take out all the storage and we're going to place cots here so during the World Cup people can literally rest and sleep."   

Henderson already feels better about the Atlanta of 2026 than what he saw in 1996.

"You don't know what put a person in their situation. Just give them a chance. If they need housing, give them housing.  If they need a job, give them a job," Henderson said.