Georgia launches Safe at Home address-protection program for abuse survivors
Georgia has launched the Safe at Home Program, a statewide address-confidentiality service that allows eligible survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, human trafficking, stalking and similar crimes to use a substitute address on most state and local public records.
The program launched July 1, 2026, the same day the law establishing it took effect. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the launch.
For eligible participants, the central change is the availability of a substitute address when dealing with covered government records. The program is intended to prevent abusers from locating survivors through readily accessible public information.
What Safe at Home changes
Addresses can appear in public records maintained by state and local governments. Safe at Home provides an alternative address for eligible participants to use on most of those records, rather than requiring their actual address to be used in each covered setting.
The service is directed at survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, human trafficking and stalking, along with survivors of similar crimes. The state describes it as an address-confidentiality program, focused on the public availability of location information.
That focus is significant because the program concerns how address information is handled in public records. It does not change the fact that the service applies to most state and local records, rather than every record maintained by government agencies.
The Secretary of State’s announcement does not provide a record-by-record inventory of the documents or databases included in the program. It also does not identify every record that may be excluded. Survivors considering the service therefore have confirmation of its broad use on most state and local public records, but not a complete public list of its reach in the announcement.
Law took effect with the launch
The Georgia General Assembly created Safe at Home through Senate Bill 324. July 1, 2026, was both the law’s effective date and the date the state launched the program.
That timing means the program is no longer a proposed service or a future legislative change. It is an operating statewide program administered through the Georgia Secretary of State’s office for eligible survivors seeking to limit the use of their actual address in covered public records.
The announcement identifies the substitute address as the program’s practical mechanism. It does not describe Safe at Home as a universal shield against disclosure of location information, and it does not establish that participation can prevent every possible way an abuser might attempt to find a survivor.
Who may be affected
Eligible survivors of the crime categories named by the state are the people the program is designed to serve. For those participants, the new option concerns address information that could otherwise be available through government records that are readily accessible to others.
The program’s stated goal is to help stop abusers from finding survivors through that public information. Its operation is tied to use of a substitute address on covered records; the release does not provide additional claims about outcomes for participants or enrollment levels.
As of the information provided in the state announcement, Georgia had not reported how many survivors had enrolled. The announcement also does not set out eligibility procedures beyond identifying the survivor groups the program is intended to cover.
What comes next
The confirmed implementation milestone is July 1, when Senate Bill 324 took effect and Safe at Home launched statewide. The Secretary of State’s announcement does not identify a later enrollment deadline, expansion date or further implementation milestone.
For now, the verified change is that eligible survivors have a state-administered substitute-address option for most state and local public records. The program’s precise application in any individual case depends on eligibility and on whether the particular record is among those covered.
Sources
- Secretary Raffensperger Announces Launch of Safe at Home Program to Protect Domestic Violence Survivors, Georgia Secretary of State
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