Airport no longer homeless’ last stop

Atlanta police once dealt with homeless people who hung out at the city’s airport in predictable fashion: arresting them.

The take-prisoners approach didn’t stop the homeless from returning to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

“It was an eyesore,” said the airport’s chaplain, the Rev. Chester Cook, who regularly counsels and helps homeless people. “There were literally homeless people in every chair, hanging out, causing trouble.”

Airport police decided in January 2008 that it was time for a change.

The Atlanta Police Department brought the message of its homeless outreach program to Hartsfield-Jackson’s police precinct, training officers about mental illness, homelessness and services available to those in crisis.

Some officers were slow to get on board, preferring to handle the problem with handcuffs.

A year later, the new approach is catching on, and more homeless people are getting the help they need rather than a night in jail, airport officials say.

“I’ve never seen a program like this,” Cook said. “We really want to be a part of the solution.”

It’s obvious why Hartsfield-Jackson has been a popular spot for the homeless. It’s easy to get to on MARTA. There are plenty of restrooms and chairs. And, as the world’s busiest, the airport is a target-rich environment for panhandling and another crime largely attributed to homeless people: baggage theft.

To solve the problem, Atlanta police looked to their own Homeless Outreach and Proactive Enforcement (HOPE) team, a handful of officers who deal solely with the city’s homeless.

A couple of officers on each airport shift were sent to the same training given to HOPE officers, said Hartsfield-Jackson spokesman John Kennedy.

Now, homeless persons who agree to go are given rides to the Gateway Center, the downtown shelter at the center of the city’s attempt to stem chronic homelessness, he said. So far, more than 450 have received Gateway services.

Airport police still arrest homeless people, though it’s supposed to be more of a last resort if transients refuse help from Gateway and continue to loiter and panhandle.

In fact, police made slightly more arrests last year than the year before for loitering and trespassing —- the two crimes for which homeless people are most commonly arrested at Hartsfield-Jackson. In 2008, 101 people were taken into custody for those offenses, compared with 96 in 2007, according to statistics obtained through an Open Records Act request.

The difference now, Kennedy said, is that many of those arrested go before a community judge who links them up with social services rather than jail time.

Officer Remero Mason, a 17-year department veteran, was one of the initial officers who got crisis intervention training through the HOPE program. While some officers balked, Mason embraced the change.

“He, in my opinion, is officer of the year,” Cook said. “He’s the one that stayed the course and said, ‘We’ve got to do this.’ “

It came at a difficult time in Mason’s personal life. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in October. His eyes well up with tears when he talks about it.

“That was a crisis for me,” he said. “When you hear that word ‘cancer,’ you think you’re going to die.”

Mason was one of the lucky ones. He finished his last round of radiation treatment earlier this month and today has a clean bill of health.

Now, when he comes across homeless people, he often shares his story of battling cancer to make connections.

“It’s like, ‘He’s been there. He’s not talking from some book. He went through those issues,’ ” Mason said.

In a typical week, Mason and other airport police transport seven to 10 homeless people to Gateway Center, said Vince Smith, the center’s executive director.

Once there, the homeless get a bed and a meal and, more importantly, access to programs that help them deal with such issues as drug addiction and mental health problems.

“That’s so much better than incarceration,” Smith said. “Everyone has voiced that not only is it the morally right thing to do, but it is the right direction for our community as a whole.”

It has freed up a lot of space at Hartsfield-Jackson, too, as fewer people are treating the airport’s atrium as a living room.

Cook said, “We’re not seeing the regulars that were almost always here.”