Comments on: Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter told to vacate building

By: nadia

nadia — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:54:12 +0000

I have lived intown and very near shelters for years and have never seen the problems I see on a daily basis around this shelter. The lack of control is stunning and the attitude of the management is outrageous. They think that they are helping people but in fact they are doing nothing more than enabling drug and alcohol addiction. If you want to see how a responsible shelter is run, look at the Baptist Mission on Peters St. It is orderly and complies with the needs of their neighbors.

The Task Force thinks that if you complain about the drug dealing that occurs on and around its premises you do not care about the homeless… in fact, they do not care about their neighbors for fostering criminal activity on the streets around their building.

If you support this shelter and think that the neighbors are being intolerant, then I invite you to come down to my neighborhood and walk around the shelter any time day or night and see the disfunction for yourself.

By: alex trebek

alex trebek — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:01:13 +0000

This “shelter” is a disgrace. The area for blocks around is polluted by the people poured out of the doors each morning.
By not forcing treatment or sobriety on their patrons, they are simply providing a huge flop house for drunks and crackheads.

The area should be redeveloped and it is not my job (or my taxes) to provide a place to sell drugs for the same 300 bums year after year for all of time.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:28:55 +0000

The funding drying up for the Task Force is not about lack of results…its about the building that they are in; the 96,000 sf building that, for economically progressive reasons, the city (and the developers that are so closely intertwined with leadership) would rather see redeveloped. But what of ethical progression? Just collateral damage.

Take water to the Task Force.

By: AH

AH — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:27:22 +0000

So what are they counting on in two weeks some sort of government bailout or an actual sale?

By: Not So Simple

Not So Simple — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:33:39 +0000

Homeless men and women in Atlanta are well aware of the Gateway Center and other support programs in the city. Many choose to go to the Task Force for the Homeless shelter because they have a live and let live attitude, whereas other shelters are more forceful about putting the people they care for in rehab and other programs. Don’t think that if Peachtree and Pine were to close, you’d suddenly have no homeless living in the surrounding parks and hanging out in Midtown. There are several other shelters in the area, and many would just as well choose to live outside (in your neighborhood) than go to the Gateway Center or find permanent housing.

If you want to see what happens to several hundred homeless men and women, with mental disabilities, with drug and alcohol dependency, who will need to eat, sleep, piss and hang out somewhere without that shelter, roll the dice and take your chances.

By: S. Dekalb Voter

S. Dekalb Voter — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:10:22 +0000

“Creative Loafing, in regard to this issue, consistently has served blatantly and singularly the corporate interests”

You’ve got to be kidding? CL serving corporate interests? That’s hilarious.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:56:48 +0000

Your misrepresentation is equally hilarious and outraging. Creative Loafing, in regard to this issue, consistently has served blatantly and singularly the corporate interests which incidentally, pay the way for you to showcase their mindset.

Blood on your hands, to you and the city who would rather see poor people dead than in the streets.
Who’s streets? Our streets.

-Food Not Bombs Atlanta

By: MaxieGrrrl

MaxieGrrrl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:24:02 +0000

I USED to live around the corner from that shelter. It’s being shamefully run and those people don’t get the services they really need. The spillover into the neighborhoods, grocery stores and such is absolutely intolerable. And crime? They should shut down the Savannah Suites right now!

By: butwheretobuycrackthen?

butwheretobuycrackthen? — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:01:18 +0000

I know it’s a tough, complex problem, but I drive by that place every day on my way home, and I invariably see drugs being openly bought and sold and crack-addled zombies wandering in the middle of Pine St. The parking lot across the street and the sidewalk is always crowded with shuffling, lost souls, most of whom seem to be somewhere between insane and shit-faced drunk. I don’t know what to do with them, and I’m sure many of us wish they would all just “straighten up” or go away…oh and BTW, most of them sure seem to manage to find cigarettes and booze/drugs–one way or another. Two of the major ways being stealing and begging, I’d be willing to wager.