Long-shuttered homeless shelter reopens in Gwinnett County

“When The Resting Spot first opened in 2021 it filled a critical gap as Gwinnett’s first emergency shelter for women and children,” Nicole Love Hendrickson, chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday. “The facility’s temporary closure due to flood damage created a void in our social safety net for services for women and children, and we felt that deeply from that time.

“Today, we’re reopening these doors, expanding possibilities and strengthening our community’s support system.”

Credit: Lautaro Grinspan

Credit: Lautaro Grinspan

Hope Thrive Support will run the shelter, which will have capacity of 20 beds and two cribs. It will serve young parents ages 18 to 24, and their children.

Megan VandeBogert, Hope Thrive Support’s executive director, said there is a sizable population of homeless youth in Gwinnett County, many of whom might have aged out of foster care and be looking after young children of their own while living in cars or in parks.

“We really wanted to focus on parenting youth,” she said.

In conjunction with the shelter, the Latin American Association will manage the Gwinnett Outreach Center, providing a range of social services with the goal of helping bring stability and self-sufficiency to households.

Services will include rent and utility assistance, help signing up for welfare programs, legal services to obtain immigration benefits, free groceries, and connection to the association’s broader programs, including help securing employment, entrepreneurship classes, case management and language support.

Santiago Marquez, CEO of the Latin American Association, said it is important for his organization to have a more visible presence in Gwinnett. The organization is in Brookhaven.

“It’s been a dream of mine to be here. And why? Because Gwinnett County has the largest population of Latinos. And this area in particular is about 70% Hispanic, right? And so, for us, the LAA has to be here,” he said. “We want to go to where people are. We don’t expect them to have to come to us.”

Marquez added that a coalition of nonprofit organizations, faith leaders and local government has made the reopening possible, and that structure might prove a model for others to follow.

“And this is what it’s going to take moving forward, as it gets tougher to raise money for nonprofits, because we all know the government funding is shrinking, especially federal funding,” he said. “We’re going to have to collaborate.”

Marquez said that, until recently, 25% of the Latin American Association’s funding came from the federal government. Some of that was tied to a nearly $11 million FEMA grant to the city of Atlanta to provide housing and other humanitarian assistance to migrants. That grant was canceled, Marquez said.

Members of the coalition behind the reopened shelter said they will look to private funding sources to keep the shelter operational.