Joyce Dorsey called the parking lots of Lawrenceville home.
Dorsey, 55, spent the summer living in a car — where high gas prices and soaring temperatures made for a difficult existence. She kept her windows rolled up for safety and purchased a portable fan to guard against overheating.
“I thank God every day, every night my kids are grown and they don’t have to see me go through this,” said Dorsey, who’d run the fan at intervals to extend battery life.
She is among the thousands of homeless metro Atlantans. Experts and social service agency officials say the population is increasing, particularly in the suburbs due to ever-rising rents. And officials with the organizations that serve suburban communities in Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb counties say there is no relief in sight.
The exact number of homeless people is difficult to track — because of the transitory nature of many people caught in the cycle of homelessness. But the men and women who run suburban shelters or advocacy organizations say they have seen an uptick in people seeking their services in recent years.
And metro Atlanta school systems, which are required to track the number of homeless students annually, also report increasing numbers, last academic year over 2020-21.
Elizabeth Sirk, chief development officer for St. Vincent de Paul Georgia, an organization that works to combat homelessness in metro communities, said the homeless population is grossly undercounted in suburban areas. It is a major problem, she said.
“Homelessness is a very pervasive issue, even though you can’t see it,” Sirk said. “It’s just as much of a problem outside of downtown as it is downtown. It just looks different.”
Many people experiencing suburban homelessness are not easily visible, officials say, because they are living in cars, abandoned buildings or extended stay hotels.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
There is no dedicated shelter for homeless men in Gwinnett. Cardboard boxes lined a recently torn-down gazebo outside the HomeFirst center which provides temporary housing for women and children. It’s just one of many outdoor spots men sleep, a HomeFirst official said.
In Cobb County, MUST Ministries opened a 136-bed facility in May that’s already reaching capacity. The shelter is housing 110 people and 25 additional families in hotels.
Falecia Stewart, the vice president of housing for MUST, said the new shelter is double the size of its previous facility but still needs more space.
“The size of our shelter is still not meeting the needs of the community,” Stewart said.
Steve Berg, the vice president for programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said increased housing costs is the main culprit behind surging homelessness in the suburbs.
“The data we have indicates that particularly for certain individuals, like not families with kids, but just individual homeless people, it’s been going up faster in the suburbs than in urban areas,” Berg said.
School systems are required to track the number of homeless students because of a federal law enacted in 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. It was passed with the intention of making school systems more aware and better able to serve homeless students.
In the past year, there has been a 13% increase in the number of homeless students statewide. And the problem is more dramatic in metro Atlanta — where the six biggest school districts reported a 19% increase, year over year.
Only DeKalb and Fulton school districts reported fewer homeless students in that timeframe.
Statistics don’t tell the full story of those who live on the streets.
Dorsey couldn’t live in the Lawrenceville shelter because she worked nights and HomeFirst requires clients to vacate their facility during the day.
The organization did get a hotel voucher for Dorsey, but she was back in her car after about eight weeks, she said. Medical issues forced her to move in with her out-of-state aunt.
“Just because a person is homeless, that don’t give you the right to pick, point, judge ... because you never know, that can happen to you too,” she said.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
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