Fulton County is opening a shelter for homeless women with children next week, which homeless advocates say is long overdue.
Known as Springdale Place, and located on Springdale Road near East Point, the shelter has already opened to a small number of homeless women and children, and will eventually provide 145 beds. That will amount to about a 25 percent increase in the number of beds available for mothers and kids in Fulton and DeKalb counties.
“We seem to have more more and more women with children who are showing up," said Leonard Westmoreland, who manages homeless programs for Fulton County "There is an overabundance of women and children sleeping on the floor at the Gateway Center."
The Gateway Center, a homeless referral agency, doubles as an emergency shelter for women and children and often has more than 100 women and children sleeping on mats, said Vince Smith, the executive director.
Last year there were 494 beds for women and children in shelters such as City of Refuge, the Salvation Army, My Sister's House, according to the metro Atlanta homeless census report.
Last year's homeless census was taken on a rainy night in January and found more than 4,800 people living on the street or in emergency shelters in Fulton and DeKalb counties; most of them in Atlanta. While women with children comprised the smallest portion of that count -- 297 kids and 149 adults -- they are still one of the fastest growing homeless segments. They are also the most difficult to serve because of complications ranging from pregnancy to keeping families together since most shelters have policies that ban boys older than 10 or 12, Smith said.
"The nice thing about Springdale Place is there will be rooms where teenage boys can stay with their families, Smith said.
Springdale Place, however, will not be able to help the mentally ill or addicts who haven't successfully completed treatment. That population constitutes more than 30 percent of the the homeless mothers, Smith said.
Stan Dawson, executive director of the Crossroads Community Ministries, said his homeless agency assisted a record 4, 637 people last year, up from 3,200 in 2009.
“If you are right on the edge, it doesn’t take much of a hit to find yourself evicted and on the street,” Dawson said. “The number of calls we have had over the last couple of years of people who have an employment history or their work hours were dramatically cut back, those numbers are through the roof for us.”
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