The Growing Number of Young Georgians Experiencing Homelessness Need our Support

By Greg Barrett, GEEARS’ Senior Manager of Leadership & Learning, for The Saporta Report

Here’s the thing about the first years of a child’s life—all the stakes are high. This is why GEEARS approaches our early childhood advocacy holistically. Babies and young children can’t fully benefit from high-quality early care and learning if they don’t also have nourishing food in their bellies, health insurance to cover their many doctors’ visits, and of course, a safe, stable place to call home.

Yet Schoolhouse Connection’s most recent study of Infant and Toddler Homelessness shows an increase in the number of young children—the population already most vulnerable to eviction—experiencing homelessness in Georgia. The study found that 13,692 of Georgia’s infants and toddlers were experiencing homelessness in 2022-2023. Meanwhile, housing affordability has only worsened since the study was published.

This has inspired GEEARS to step up our advocacy for these children and their families. During Georgia’s 2026 legislative session, we supported HB 689, which would have established a homelessness prevention program. We’ve also launched a Housing Security Committee within our Infant-Toddler Coalition. This cross-sector collaborative effort aims to better understand the needs and opportunities for permanent, safe, and stable housing for very young children. We are lucky to be one of ten states awarded funding and support from Thrive From the Start  to help us kick off this work, which will be a launchpad toward future advocacy. 

GEEARS is working to raise Georgians’ awareness of this issue because, as we learned when we co-sponsored an event with Brian Goldstone, author of There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, homelessness is often invisible and under-documented. More times than many know, hard-working families with young children are “pushed” into this precarious state of being. 

“In [American cities], a low-wage job is homelessness waiting to happen,” Goldstone wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning, book, which documented the relatable and heart-wrenching experiences of five Atlanta families, including several with young children. “The slightest setback or unanticipated expense—minor car trouble, disrupted childcare, a brief illness—can be disastrous.” 

Here are some other facts you might not know: 

• The definition of homelessness is expansive and varied. It doesn’t always mean “unhoused.” Families staying in shelters are homeless, but so are ones living in week-to-week extended stay hotels, temporarily crashing on relatives’ couches, or living in domiciles without air conditioning or clean water. 
• Like the Atlanta families documented in There is No Place for Us, there are people experiencing homelessness who are employed and, in fact, working relentlessly to try to support their families. 
• Children under age five are among the most likely to be evicted. 
• Homelessness is classified as an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), which can have an enduring negative effect on a young child’s brain development and well-being. 
• Once homeless, the instability of a family’s existence makes it extremely challenging for them to access harm-mitigating services like home visiting or Early Head Start. Schoolhouse Connection’s study found that only one in 30 Georgia infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness is enrolled in these early childhood programs. 
• Children experiencing homeless who attend K-12 schools are often identified by district-based case workers, who implement the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act to ensure that they receive essential services. But young children who aren’t yet connected to school systems often slip through the cracks. 

So, what can Georgians do about this growing problem in our state? 

Get involved. Everyone should sign up to receive GEEARS’ Action Alerts. You can use them to contact your elected officials when opportunities arise to advocate for policies that support children and families facing housing insecurity. And if you have expertise or experience that you think could contribute to the work of the Early Childhood Housing Security Committee, please contact me at gbarrett@geears.org.

Learn more. Schoolhouse Connection’s resources surrounding infant and toddler homelessness are both reliable and accessible. The same goes for this video from Thrive From the Start, and Goldstone’s moving, meticulously researched book. We encourage you to check these out and stay connected to GEEARS as we continue to explore this issue and prioritize it in our advocacy. 

To be effective early childhood advocates, we must mobilize around both chronic issues like child care access and urgent perils. This era of mounting housing insecurity—with a disproportionate effect on babies and young children—is one of those crisis points. So, GEEARS is jumping into our advocacy around early childhood homelessness with both feet. We urge you to join us.