Controversial shelter makes a final stand
Anita Beaty, the embattled director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, says she "won't agree" to an eviction for the shelter.
It appears she doesn't have a choice.
A showdown brewing since the 1990s appears finally to be nearing resolution now that the task force has lost its longtime home at Peachtree and Pine streets downtown to foreclosure.
At a rally held on Thursday outside the shelter, Beaty announced the task force has filed a complaint accusing the city of discriminatory practices that violate federal fair housing rules. It asks the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to withhold about $20 million in federal housing and community development funds.
That complaint, which also names Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, is in addition to a separate federal lawsuit filed last year that also seeks to prove city officials and business leaders conspired against the task force, costing it millions in donations.
Though Beaty told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she has no plans to vacate the facility, one of her attorneys, Steven Hall, acknowledged she faces "an uphill battle."
The building's new owner, Norcross developer Manny Fialkow, is already mapping out a future minus the shelter, which opened in the former auto parts warehouse 13 years ago. Fialkow purchased two loans on the property in January totaling $900,000 -- a bargain for the 100,000-square-foot structure located on the edge of downtown.
In a statement, Fialkow said his company, Ichthus Community Trust, is discussing "the next steps for managing the care of an estimated 400 homeless men who reside at our facility at 477 Peachtree St. We now have a group of committed social service and housing agencies on board to assist in improving conditions for them. Over the coming weeks and months we will work with all of the partners and community at large to get the men the housing, jobs and counseling they need and want."
Beaty, a fierce advocate for the homeless for three decades, most likely won't be involved in that process. It would mark the end of a complex and contentious relationship dating back to 1984, when she took control of the task force created three years earlier by Mayor-elect Andrew Young after a bitter freeze that left 17 homeless men dead from exposure.
The task force's mission was to connect the homeless with local emergency providers. Eventually, under Beaty's leadership, it emerged as the central administrator of federal grant money. But some of those providers claimed the task force mismanaged those funds and, after a HUD audit, the city cut ties with Beaty.
Minus that municipal ballast, Beaty turned to Coca-Cola heiress Ednabelle Wardlaw, who purchased the Peachtree-Pine building and donated it to the task force, where it has operated independently -- and at odds with city officials -- ever since. That conflict has intensified over the past few years, with the city turning off the shelter's water for unpaid bills and the task force ducking previous foreclosures.
Beaty claims the city has made it impossible for the task force to repay those bills because it's cut off virtually all its funding resources. Hall said the city's actions cost the task force some $700,000 to $800,000 in state and federal grants last year. The group is seeking about $10 million in damages in a federal civil rights lawsuit.
"A great injustice has been done," Hall told the AJC. "If I've got a donor lined up, some third party can't come in there and say don't give money to them."
Hall said that's exactly what took place when Central Atlanta Progress President A.J. Robinson met with Chick-fil-A chief operating officer Dan Cathy, who had pledged $750,000 to the task force.
In a deposition taken last fall, Robinson acknowledged meeting with Cathy. He testified the purpose of the meeting was to let Cathy hear about the impact the shelter has had on the neighborhood and "to educate him about other opportunities in the community to support homeless activities."
"I wouldn't characterize it as going after the task force," Robinson said.
Cathy eventually withdrew his donation.
In her deposition taken last September, Beaty said the city has "made disparaging remarks and alleged wrongdoing on our part that's been proven to be untrue. [W]e've had donors who have normally given to us over the years who now aren't. One in particular, which was significant, is the Cathedral of St. Phillip."
Attorneys for the city countered that loss of donations had more to do with Beaty's mismanagement of the task force. It's a claim oft made by Beaty's detractors, who argue the shelter does little to help the men it houses.
In a statement to the AJC, Robinson said, "Our focus, our concern, our commitment is to the men and the neighborhood and doing what is right for both. The recent allegations are unfortunate because it is meant to distract the groups committed to taking Peachtree-Pine in the right direction and putting in the necessary steps to do so."
Though she is vilified by the city and many neighborhood groups that border the Peachtree-Pine shelter, Beaty's defenders are just as passionate.
"I think somebody should go to jail" for evicting the task force, Joe Beasley of Rainbow PUSH Atlanta said at Thursday's rally.