Fresh Loaf

Atlanta mayoral candidate Lisa Borders says a rival campaign distributed fake fliers promising free beer and food at a block party she hosted this morning at her downtown headquarters.

From the Borders web site:

[Borders campaign manager Stacey Abrams] said the campaign made a donation to the Gateway facility, a downtown Atlanta homeless service center, when people began coming to block party with a fake flyer that promised free food and beer. “We are deeply saddened that another campaign would use the most vulnerable members of our community in an attempt to disrupt our event to say thank you. By misusing our logo and handing out these flyers, they misled men and women who have faced more than enough difficulty. We were glad to work with the Gateway Center to feed and shelter those in need.”

Sounds like an awkward moment, no? The press release doesn’t name the campaign that allegedly distributed the fliers. If you were handed one, send us a line.

Responses from Borders’ opponents are after the jump.

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Anita Beaty

UPDATE: Shelter stays open for now.

The water has been turned off again at the city’s largest homeless shelter and this time health officials have given the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless 24 hours to clear out of the building.

Back in December, the city shut off water service to the 100,000-square-foot shelter at the corner of Peachtree and Pine streets because the Task Force had more than $160,000 in unpaid water bills. A judge quickly granted a temporary restraining order to have the water switched back on, but gave the city the power to cut service again if the Task Force failed to keep up with a fairly strict payment schedule.

That’s where we are now. Anita Beaty, executive director of the Task Force, admits the group hadn’t paid its bill.

“We didn’t make the payments the last two months because we didn’t have the money,” she says.

Shortly after the water went off, investigators with the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness showed up at the shelter and served legal notice that unless water service is restored within 24 hours, the building must be vacated.

“If they don’t vacate, the case will be turned over to law enforcement,” says April Majors, a public information officer with the county health department, who says she doesn’t believe it will come to that. “The management (of the shelter) is being very cooperative.”

Also, she says, if the Task Force doesn’t comply with the county order, it would be required to appear before the county’s environmental court.

The Task Force has until noon Tuesday to clear out of the Peachtree-Pine shelter, Majors says, unless it can restore water service — meaning drinkable water and working toilets.

(more…)

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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)

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