For more than a decade, Anita Beaty, who runs the woebegone homeless shelter at the foot of Midtown, has withstood every challenge thrown her way.
Local notables helped dry up her funding; the shelter was in foreclosure proceedings; there was a tuberculosis outbreak there; an unpaid water bill of $600,000 meant the spigots were to be turned off. And yet, Beaty and the 500 or so homeless people who shuffle in and out of the massive brick structure at Peachtree and Pine streets are still there.
Recently, Mayor Kasim Reed described a plan to take over the building through eminent domain and turn it into a police-fire emergency center, one that could respond to ISIS attacks if need be. A resourceful move.
But on the horizon is a looming trial. The shelter's lawsuit, which claims Peachtree-Pine was undercut by a civic conspiracy to kill its finances, is scheduled to be heard in October. If she loses, it seems almost certain the shelter will soon be gone and the area will be opened up for wide-scale development.
But if the shelter wins, this high-stakes civic drama will seemingly have no end in sight.
