Task force for homeless pays bill

The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless met its 5 p.m. deadline Monday to pay the city of Atlanta $8,035 to avoid having its water service shut off.

“We are going to pay our bills,” Tony Thomas, a spokesman for the task force, said Monday afternoon.

The task force, located in a two-story brick building at the northeast corner of Peachtree and Pine streets, serves about 700 homeless people a day at its headquarters.

City officials say the $8,035 is part of an estimated $160,000 owed to Atlanta’s Watershed Management Department. Task force leaders dispute a portion of the bill and are fighting the city in court.

Task force leaders say the water bill is part of the city’s long-standing effort to get the organization out of its current location, across the street from Emory Crawford Long Hospital and near the Bank of America building. City officials and some homelessness advocates counter the task force is poorly managed and needs to accept greater responsibility for its troubles.

The task force is behind in its $6,000-a-month interest payments to two of its three lenders that loaned the organization a total of more than $4.4 million.

The organization also has a federal tax lien of $66,453 for not paying payroll taxes in 2001, 2006 and 2007.

Executive Director Anita Beaty said the organization is working to resolve those issues.

Thomas said the organization has received donations from across the country since its troubles with the city became public. He said the task force is working to rebuild its donor base, but conceded it will take time.

Beaty rebutted suggestions that the task force is fiscally irresponsible. She said the organization has spent $4 million on improvements to its cavernous headquarters.

Beaty defended the task force against claims that it doesn’t offer enough services to help the homeless. She also responded to allegations that the organization allows dangerous men to stay there.

“We don’t refuse anybody. We want to help these people.

”We don’t want anybody to die,” Beaty said, referring to Monday’s subfreezing temperatures.

The task force’s next payment to the city, $7,675.58, is due on Jan. 5.

UPDATE

THE STORY SO FAR

> Previously: Atlanta’s Watershed Management Department shut off water service to the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless on Dec. 2 for nonpayment of a $160,000 water bill. A day later, a judge ordered the service restored and gave the task force a deadline to pay a portion of the debt.

> The latest: The task force on Monday paid $8,035, meeting the judge’s deadline.

> What’s next: Next payment is due on Jan. 5.