In the first of CL’s series of videos chronicling mayoral candidates you’ve probably never heard of, tavern owner Rufus Terrill reveals his strategy for combating Atlanta crime. Behold, the Bum Bot!
May 11, 2009, 10:02 a.m., Fairlie and Marietta streets N.W.
This photo was taken on Marietta Street May 11. It is a picture of a homeless man named William Gazaway. William is disabled and can barely walk. He shuffles around on a walker. William has been homeless ever since he got out of prison ten years ago. The night before I took this picture he slept on the street near Grady Hospital. “I got so many health problems it’s not even funny,” he said. He stopped receiving his disability check a while ago and now gets nothing, he does not know why. He has been in Grady Hospital recently but says they didn’t do anything for him but keep him doped up. “Its horrible being homeless” he said, “you never have any peace of mind.”
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
If Atlanta only had a few more "giving meters" the homeless problem would go away.
Remember the homeless pay “giving” meters the city installed downtown to discourage panhandling? They’re not working out too well.
From the Associated Press:
Six months after Atlanta business leaders set up parking meter-like machines to accept spare change donations and discourage panhandling, just $500 has been deposited – not much help for beggars who say they can sometimes raise $300 in a day on their own.
Despite the program’s dismal beginnings, Atlanta leaders are encouraged. They are installing more of the “giving meters” and using signs to make more people aware of the machines. In other cities, like Denver, thousands of dollars have been raised to help the needy.
…
The new program has had several problems, including confusion. Pedestrians have mistaken the new machines for regular parking meters. Atlanta also has far fewer than the 86 meters Denver had when that city started.
(Hat tip to Rogue at Peach Pundit)
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Estimated number of people who were homelessness in Fulton and DeKalb counties for at least part of 2007: 22,000
Number of homeless children enrolled in metro Atlanta schools: 17,267
Percentage of Atlantans interviewed in 2007 who reported job loss or unemployment as their reason for homelessness: 42
Percentage of unemployed Atlantans as of October 2007: 4.4
Percentage as of October 2008: 6.8
Average monthly rent, in dollars, for a two-bedroom apartment in Atlanta: 834
Current monthly welfare benefits, in dollars, for a woman and two children: 282
Number of donation meters installed in downtown Atlanta to discourage the homeless from panhandling: 5
Number of new meters to be installed in other Atlanta locations: 11
Dollars, per month, that Baltimore collects from 10 meters in its main tourism district: 100
Sources: Hands On Atlanta, Tri-Jurisdictional Homeless Census and Survey 2007, United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, Georgia Department of Labor, ajc.com
From the AJC:
Atlanta turned off the water to one of the city’s largest homeless shelters, the Task Force for the Homeless at Peachtree and Pine streets, on Tuesday for nonpayment.
The Task Force for the Homeless describes the action as another tactic to close the shelter which housed 700 people on Monday night.
[...]
The city realized in September it had not billed the Task Force for the Homeless for sewer use since 2002 and it demanded a $16,000 payment to cover service for 12 months, Beaty and Ward said.
Maybe the mayor can take some of the money from her homeless meters and apply it to the shelter’s bill.
The Whole Foods that canceled a fundraiser for the homeless because of pressure from a nearby neighborhood association says it’s keeping its word.
“Whole Foods Market is honoring its commitment by donating $3,500 to the Earn-a-Bike program, and honoring the commitment to our team members, who feel very strongly about continuing with a donation,” writes Lesley Sifford, marketing team leader at the Whole Foods location on Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Rachael Spiewak of the Sopo Bicycle Cooperative, the nonprofit that helped organize the fundraiser, chimes in in a previous post’s comments section.
On Friday, September 12, Ponce Whole Foods contacted Taskforce and Sopo
to tell us that they are honoring their original commitment to dedicate
last Wednesday’s 5% Day to Taskforce for the Homeless. They are making
a fantastic contribution directly to the shelter, which will be spent
on opening and operating the bicycle shop where the Earn-A-Bike program
will take place. We look forward to continuing to partner with
Taskforce and other agencies who want to pursue access to cycling and
bicycle repair for all!
The Sopo Bicycle Cooperative, a local nonprofit that helps people find and fix velocipedes, is asking its members to considerately urge Whole Foods to reinstate the fundraiser it canceled because of pressure from a Midtown neighborhood group.
According to a message posted on MySpace by Rachael Spiewak, Sopo’s executive director, the fundraiser to benefit the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless was organized by a cooperative intern from Paideia High School and an Americorps volunteer at the task force.
We all came together to create an on-site bicycle repair shop that provides access to an environmentally responsible form of transportation as well as opportunities to learn marketable skills. Skill building and reliable transportation are necessary for everyday life, and will help our friends at Taskforce access jobs and independent living.
Get Sopo’s take on the matter — as well as who to call at Whole Foods if you want them to know how you feel — after the jump.
(Special thanks to Christa at PecanneLog for the tip and message)
What a difference a few hours makes.
The Midtown Ponce Security Alliance has called off its boycott of Whole Foods, according to another e-mail the neighborhood group sent to members. The grocery store agreed to cancel the fundraiser that sparked the boycott. (Five percent of today’s sales would have benefited the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.)
From the e-mail:
MIDTOWN PONCE SECURITY ALLIANCE – Whole Foods calls off fundraiser
——————————————————————————–
We have confirmed that Whole Foods has suspended its plans to raise funds for the Metro Task Force for the “Homeless,” so we have called off the boycott. Due to overwhelming response from the community, they are not going ahead with the plan. It has become clear to Whole Foods that Peachtree Pine, operated by the Metro Task Force for the “Homeless,” generates substantial opposition from the surrounding community because of all the crime radiating from that building at Peachtree & Pine.
On the one hand we should not hold Whole Foods responsible because the Task Force presentation said the money would be used to buy bicycles for homeless people to get to and from work. The Task Force is slick, and can be stealthy in their public relations practices. It probably sounded like a great idea, but Whole Foods didn’t know what a nuisance and dangerous proposition that Peachtree/Pine presents to the surrounding community.
On the other hand, we had to act fast because we only became aware of this plan at 9am this morning – an hour after its launch. After verification and a flurry of phone calls, we made the decision to call for a short-notice community response. Had we known about this ahead of time, we would have attempted to derail the plan in the background before sounding an alarm to the community.
It so happens that we have been evaluating neighborhood-friendlier alternatives to address the homeless issue in Atlanta, but we are still working on this and will share our findings at a later date.
In the meantime, we wish thank those of you who responded by calling Whole Foods, and especially to Whole Foods for listening to their stakeholders. Therefore, we have called off the boycott of Whole Foods.
- Your Neighbors at the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance
(UPDATE) The fundraiser has been canceled because of neighborhood response and the boycott has been lifted. See this post for details.
The Midtown Ponce Security Alliance, a vigilant homeowners group whose stance on crime teeters between neighborhood watch and Batman, has called for a boycott of Whole Foods today because the high-end grocery store is donating a share of today’s sales to the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless. (Whole Foods has a nearby location across the street from City Hall East.)
In an e-mail sent to members today and forwarded along to CL, the alliance says “In all likelihood, Whole Foods will furnish several thousand dollars to this “task force” so that crime and disorder in our community can continue.”
The group says nearby Peachtree Pine homeless shelter, which last year lost state and federal funding and would benefit from the donations, does not help the city’s homeless population and merely allows “crime and disorder” to flourish in the gentrifying area. The e-mail points to two specific events — the recent killing of a Florida resident at a Midtown gas station and a resident who was assaulted with a brick.
Quite strange when you think of all the other good Whole Foods accomplishes, as well as the larger issue of what can be done to help break the cycle in which many homeless people find themselves.
The full e-mail to alliance members is pasted after the jump.
Tiny to the point of appearing shriveled, Jessica looks much older than her 48 years. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering she has HIV, suffers from mental illness and has been homeless perhaps half her life.
For the past several years, she lived in the bushes outside City Hall, which is where former Atlanta Councilwoman Debi Starnes first met her. Starnes estimates that she had suggested to Jessica on at least 50 occasions that she go to a shelter or ask help from a social-service agency – only to be cussed out.
Last week, however, Jessica said she had changed her mind; she was ready to check in to the city’s Gateway Center, where she could be assigned temporary housing and evaluated for treatment as part of a comprehensive program aimed at stabilizing lives gripped by addiction and psychosis. The last they spoke, Jessica told Starnes she must’ve been sent by God to help her.
Such are the incremental victories in the battle against homelessness.
Read the rest of this article here.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
