Recession hits shelters, services

By Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There are more than 7,000 homeless people in Atlanta and an untold number of panhandlers who, while they may have a place to sleep, are barely hanging on.

And while there is an abundance of service organizations willing to help, they too have been hit by a lagging economy.

In August the Midtown Assistance Center, which provides emergency rent money, announced that it had spent nearly twice its monthly $24,000 budget in July on assistance.

The Salvation Army recently announced that it would not open its nearly completed homeless shelter for families because there was no money to operate it.

Then there is the lawsuit filed by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless that accuses the city and Central Atlanta Progress of conspiring to shut it down through “harassment and intimidation.”

Known as “Peachtree and Pine,” because of its location, the shelter sleeps more than 500 a night. When they aren’t sleeping, men hang around the shelter ducking in and out of its garage on prime Midtown real estate.

“Atlanta has been trying to hide poverty so they attack us for keeping poverty out front,” said Troy Harris, who does IT work for the shelter. “If the city was doing what it says it is doing in placing people in housing, we wouldn’t have 700 people a night in here. We are the visible truth of Atlanta.”

A.J. Robinson, president of CAP, denies any collusion to get the shelter closed, but says it needs to go.

He said there has been a fundamental shift in how the country is dealing with homelessness and the task force has not embraced change.

The Gateway 24/7 Homeless Services Center, Robinson said, is an example of the new way — where extensive social services, not just a meal and a bed, are provided.

“In Atlanta we have done an admirable job of sheltering and feeding the homeless, but we have not done a good job of helping them not be homeless,” Robinson said. “[Peachtree and Pine] is not getting public and private dollars and is not being run well. Instead of helping solve the problem they are part of the problem. They are a terrible influence on the community.”

Anita Beaty, executive director of the shelter, who has been at her current location for 12 years, scoffs at the notion that her facility needs to go.

“They don’t want us on Peachtree Street and they keep saying that there is a better use for this building. But we are not going anywhere,” Beaty said. “They want to demonize poor and black people.”

But Ernest Hives, a homeless man who hangs out in Woodruff Park, said he would rather sleep outside than go to Peachtree and Pine. He said his only felony arrest was because of trouble at the shelter.

“I have a temper,” Hives said. “I try to keep myself clean and presentable, and the people up there are not the people I need to be around — ever.”

Meanwhile, the Gateway Center, a converted jail that opened in 2005 for $5.5 million, treats 6,000 individuals every year.

“Gateway is the central hub of our system,” said Debi Starnes, Franklin’s homeless czar. “We are really swamped right now, because of this economy. We are seeing more homeless and different homeless than we have seen before. But we are focused in doing it the right way.”

On a recent tour, Protip Biswas, executive director of the United Way’s Regional Commission on Homelessness, reminds visitors that Gateway is not a homeless shelter, but a place where more than 25 organizations and agencies — including the Department of Labor, Veterans Affairs, St. Joseph’s and Traveler’s AID — are gathered under one roof to provide resources to the homeless.

“If you wanted to end homelessness, you walk into this place and get services,” Biswas said. “You don’t come here at night, get a place to sleep and leave in the morning. If the goal is to end homelessness, you must get services during the day.”

Compared to Peachtree and Pine, Gateway is serene and quiet as men and women line up for services — ranging from getting a shower and washing their clothes to drug counseling.

Back up Peachtree Street, Reggie Austin, a shelter caseworker, helps a woman file papers to get her identification. Several years ago, he was in her shoes.

“When you come to Atlanta all the glitter and glamour is out front,” Austin said. “But nobody wrote a brochure on how to be homeless.”