A nonprofit is opening a Sandy Springs office to help the increasing number of homeless people living on the streets of north Fulton.
The Gateway Center, a nonprofit operating a shelter in downtown Atlanta, offers programs that help the homeless find temporary and permanent housing and sign up for voucher programs. The new office, to be located in the North Fulton Government Service Center, will open sometime in 2021 said Chief Executive Officer Raphael Holloway.
The Fulton County Homeless Service Division recently awarded Gateway $600,000 which will also offer rental assistance and services at other locations, Holloway said.
Fulton County estimates that about 300 people per 100,000 are homeless, according to a Point in Time Count estimate of the homeless conducted in January. The count, which is required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, showed more than 3,200 experiencing homelessness in the city of Atlanta on any given night, a 31% increase from 2019.
Holloway said he expects to see an increase in homeless numbers overall in Fulton due to the pandemic. Holloway could not provide data on the number of homeless in north Fulton or the amount of increase during the pandemic.
Chronically homeless people have told Sandy Springs police officers and NFCC that they feel safer in north Fulton than in the city of Atlanta. The city of Atlanta has had a rise in violent crime in 2020. And by Thanksgiving murders were up 40% compared to the same time last year, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
In Sandy Springs, longer term homeless people have become familiar faces to many residents. And since the start of the pandemic, there’s been an influx of people to the city who are living on the streets, Mayor Rusty Paul said.
“We’ve had a large number of homeless people coming up out of Atlanta because they’re saying it’s just not safe to be in Atlanta anymore and so they’re moving north,” Paul said.
The mayor commented on the homeless during a virtual forum held by Leadership Sandy Springs on Dec. 3.. He added that the people in the city experiencing homelessness for the first time tend to stay hidden away from obvious view of the public. Most of the chronically homeless in the city are experiencing an addiction or mental illness, he said.
Deputy Police Chief Keith Zgonc said officers try to help homeless people by engaging them in conversation and connect them with nonprofits and services.
“We have a mix of (homeless people),” Zgonc said. “Some don’t stay for a long time. We’re just educating officers so they know what to do.”
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