Atlanta’s largest homeless shelter sues City Hall
September 11, 2009 at 11:26 am by Thomas Wheatley in News
Anita Beatty of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless alleges that the city conspired to shut down her Midtown facility.
A lawsuit filed by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless that accuses the city of Atlanta of using “improper, illegal and unethical means” in an attempt to shut down the organization’s controversial Peachtree-Pine shelter will get its day in Fulton County Superior Court on Sept. 21.
The 23-page filing alleges that the city has used a multi-pronged approach since 2007 to try and shut down the shelter — the largest of its kind in Atlanta, and, according to neighbors and city officials, a magnet for crime in a gentrifying corridor.
City Hall officials have damaged the organization’s reputation and ability to compete for funding, the task force’s lawyers claim, by delaying certification needed to apply for grants, making defamatory remarks to private donors, and cutting off water service to the shelter for unpaid bills. The lawsuit also accuses officials with Central Atlanta Progress, a civic booster group, of instigating the media to report negatively on the shelter.
The lawsuit asks the judge to stop the city from collecting on the shelter’s water bill debts, defaming the task force, and refusing to issue the certification it needs to seek funding. (Here’s a link to a PDF of the task force’s lawsuit.)
A.J. Robinson of Central Atlanta Progress strongly denies any conspiracy between the downtown organization and City Hall to shut down the task force. In an interview with CL, Robinson claimed that other local organizations were more effective than the task force when it comes to helping people break the cycle of homelessness.
“It’s not about the homeless population,” Robinson said of the dispute. “It’s about a very poorly managed and poorly operated operation. I wish we could influence the media to shine a light on this organization and how the people in there are not being served. There are better facilities around the community that can serve that purpose.”
Robinson also pointed out that CAP gets involved in all issues that impact the community, and he claimed that CAP officials’ conversations with reporters about the task force were aimed at providing journalists with information to help them write more accurate stories.
For years the task force and city have butted heads over how to tackle Atlanta’s homelessness situation. In 2007, the city removed the shelter from its list of suggested donors, a move that weakened its ability to obtain funding.
Task force officials, however, say it serves homeless people who are often turned away from crowded city facilities, and point to its success stories. It says the city wants to push out Atlanta’s homeless population to appease the downtown business community. (For a thorough look at the dispute between the task force and City Hall, check out Scott Henry’s Dec. 24 CL story.)
On Tuesday, task force officials including executive director Anita Beaty and such supporters as Foods Not Bombs, the Georgia Citizens Coalition on Hunger and the Atlanta Transit Riders Union rallied at City Hall to raise awareness about the lawsuit and urge the media to fairly cover the trial. More than two dozen academics, including housing experts Larry Keating of Georgia Tech and Lindsay Jones of Emory University, issued a statement in support of the task force. The academics wrote:
“…[the lawsuit] reveals how powerful economic and political interests have pursued an agenda of downtown development that sacrifices the well-being of working families, the poor, and homeless people. As concerned academics who believe that our city’s future should be shaped by Dr. King’s dream of a beloved community, we hope that this potentially precedent-setting lawsuit will receive the widest possible publicity.”
As of Tuesday, Debi Starnes, a former Atlanta City Councilwoman who now serves as Mayor Shirley Franklin’s chief adviser on homeless issues, and two employees of the city’s grants management department have been deposed by the task force’s attorneys. [CL and the AJC were also subpoenaed as part of the lawsuit, but exercised reporters' privilege.] Starnes referred questions to Franklin’s office. The mayor did not respond to emailed questions.
UPDATE: In its lawsuit, the shelter claimed the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management failed to provide information leading up to a December 2008 water and sewer service shutoff because of unpaid bills. A department spokeswoman writes:
The Department of Watershed Management is charged with collecting water and sewer revenues for the City. The Metropolitan Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless shelter at Peachtree and Pine currently owes more than $147,000 on one meter, which has been disconnected. The shelter paid the balance on the second meter after a court order was entered instructing it to do so. Prior to that court order, the shelter was delinquent on the bills for both meters.
(Photo by Thomas Wheatley)
September 11th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Yes, downtown needs to be cleaned up. Downtown Atlanta is an embarrassment. No other downtown area in the country has the inner city right in the middle of downtown. The amount of trash and homeless downtown is shameful. I have been to many other cities all over the country and no city even comes close to having the downtown homeless and trash problems that Atlanta has. The homeless also need to be helped as well. Get them off the downtown streets and get them some help and clean up downtown. Is that too much to ask?? It drives me crazy to watch the police and ambassadors downtown staring at the homeless all day long, not doing anything and then arresting them if they get out of line. How pathetic is that? This Atlanta problem has been allowed to fester for far too long. When will someone own up to do something about it? I work downtown and I think it’s the most depressing place on the face of the earth.
September 11th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
They need to buy them one way bus tickets back to New Orleans.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
How well are these people being served? I’ve read many stores on the shelter and while some are in fact benefitig from its services, there are others who have lived at the shelter for years. I realize that it can take awhile to get back on your feet, but I see for myself on a daily basis the numerous people standing on the corner of P’tree and Pine selling drugs, doing drugs, sleeping in the parking lot across the street from the shelter, loitering at the liquor store on the corner of Pine and Piedmont, women sitting in lawn chairs on the corner of P’tree and Pine while their children either stand with them or run around the sideewalks next to people doing and/or selling drugs. Is that really an acceptable environment? The amount of trash that is around the shelter is disgusting. If the people are going to stand outside all day (since they aren’t allowed in the shelter during that time frame) then they should be made to continually pick up the trash they are producing. That’s the least they, and the shelter, could do. There are used needles littering the sidewalks, people urinating and deficating on the sidewalks – and I’m supposed to be ok with that? Well I’m not. I understand people can get down on their luck but it sure seems to me that a lot of these folks have developed a way of life and it centers around the shelter, not around getting the help they need. I don’t live but a couple of blocks from the shelter and it’s deeply disturbing that nothing is being done about the ongoing issues. It’s time to put a stop to it and redirect our focus on the institutions that are better able to benefit those in need.
September 11th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
In the story they mention a gentrifying corridor… that’s only if you go North and South on Peachtree.
From the West and going East you have a corridor of decay that supports illegal drug dealing, prostitution, theft, robbery, muggings, public defication/urination, and general despair. This corridor starts with the Peachtree-Pine Shelter… then a pay-by-the-week motel… then a shady liquor/convenience store… capped off with a drug dealer infested park — Renaissance Park.
It is a criminal eco-system supporting all types of nefarious activity with the Shelter at it’s heart. This shelter has refused to join forces with the other homeless support organizations in the city to find long term solutions for these people. It’s managment seems dead-set on ignoring the larger issues it is causing in the surrounding community.
I’ve lived next to this shelter for almost 10 years and NOTHING has changed. Vice and crime have been continually supported by the shelters presence. Something needs to change, either shutting it down, moving it, or changing management. If nothing changes we can certainly expect more of the same from this organization: Chronic crime in the heart of our city.
September 11th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
This lawsuit is a joke. If Anita spent half as much time cleaning up the mess she created instead of fighting City Hall she would have a respected shelter. Look at the Baptist Mission on Peters St. as an example of a well-run shelter. They run that place like a tight ship. SHAME ON ANITA BEATTY.
September 11th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
IF YOU DONT PAY YOUR BILLS, IT GETS CUT OFF.
SHOULD I SUE??
September 12th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I am just a first year law student, but this complaint/lawsuit seems to be something that could be taken care of by the city if they have indeed acted in good faith. Sounds like the task force has tried to use the lack of a detailed monthly accounting from the city of $8000 worth of sewer bills to prevent the city from collecting the over $100,000 they are owed. Any CL reporters have time and legal savvy to research the specifics of the lawsuit? Sounds like a good project, but I just don’t have the time myself to do it.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
It concerns me that some repeatedly refer to trash and the homeless in the same breath, as though homeless people are trash themselves. Regarding work the Task Force is doing: they provide space for women and children to sit at night when other shelters are full; plans for a coffee shop run by those who use the shelter as well as a rooftop garden are in place. But how do you move on these plans when the city blocks grant money? The Task Force provides a needed service and needs assistance, not obstacles.