Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter vows to stay put despite foreclosure

“You can try to drag us out, but it won’t be pretty.”

That isn’t a quote, but it was the message broadcast loud and clear by one speaker after another during a mid-day rally hosted by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless on the sidewalk in front of the Peachtree-Pine shelter. The group lost ownership of the 100,000-square-foot former auto-parts warehouse in a foreclosure action last week.

Even though the property is now owned by a corporation controlled by commercial developer Manny Fialkow, activists said they have no intention of vacating the space.

“We’ll do whatever we have to do, if this has to be the Imperial Hotel II,” shouted the Rev. Timothy McDonald, pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church and a longtime Atlanta activist.

McDonald was referring to a 20-year-old act of civil disobedience in which several homeless advocates broke into and barricaded themselves in the then-abandoned Imperial Hotel, promising to come out if then-Mayor Maynard Jackson agreed to turn the historic building into low-income housing. After a week-long standoff, Jackson finally did agree. The Imperial still has units devoted to supportive housing for special-needs homeless residents.

“Here at Peachtree-Pine we take our stand,” concluded McDonald.

Task Force founder Anita Beaty and others indicated they weren’t particularly interested in such capitalistic details as who actually owns the shelter property.

“We will not leave this facility,” she said. “It belongs to the people.”