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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.”

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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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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)

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The AJC reports the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has quietly put its Peachtree Street headquarters up for sale.

The asking price for the 96,000-square-foot building is $10.5 million, Kansas said.

“This is to weigh the options and see what can really happen,” Kansas said. “We’ve gotten a significant amount of interest from people local and out of state, but no formal offer yet.”

…

Kansas said that while he thinks the Task Force would “love to stay in the building, the fact of the matter is that the Task Force only uses about 30 percent of that entire building.

“It’s very under-utilized, and you’ve got a premium location and, frankly, a use that’s not desired on Peachtree,” [Gene Kansas, the developer handling the potential sale] said.

In 1997, Coke heiress Ednabelle Wardlaw purchased the former United Motors Service building for $1.3 million and donated it to the center. In a Dec. 2008 article about the shelter’s woes, executive director Anita Beaty told CL she was looking forward to an estimated $13 million renovation of the building.

If you’re in the market for prime property on the city’s most famous thoroughfare, submit your offer before the March 16 deadline.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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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

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FINANCIAL CRISIS: Atlanta Union Mission served its annual day-before Thanksgiving meal to 1,500 people near downtown Atlanta.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Last Wednesday, Mayor Franklin held a big-deal press conference where it was announced Atlanta would install parking meters around downtown to collect money for the homeless.

The AJC’s Jeffry Scott reported yesterday that homeless meters in other cities don’t collect very much money at all.

In Baltimore, which has a homeless meter program often cited as the example of a program that works, the city collects a total of about $100 a month from 10 meters put up two years ago in the main tourism district along the waterfront.

According to The Parking Meter FAQ, a web page for parking meter hobbyists, parking meters only hold between $30 and $60, depending on the mix of coins deposited.

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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!

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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)

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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

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(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.

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Former Atlanta Councilwoman Debi Starnes, who has served for the past year or so as Mayor Shirley Franklin’s homeless czar (czarina?), found herself dropped from the city payroll last week.

But, unlike other city employees who fell victim to the latest round of layoffs, Starnes is planning to keep her job. The deal she worked out with Franklin, a personal friend, is that she can stay on as the mayor’s policy adviser on homeless issues as long as she finds private funds to pay her way.

“I have to raise the money to cover my salary,” which totals $96,000, Starnes explains. “It’s the right thing to do. When the city is so broke it’s laying off firemen, it doesn’t make sense to keep funding my position.”

Although Starnes hasn’t started looking for donations yet, she says she intends to find new sources so she won’t cannibalize money that already flows to the Regional Commission on Homelessness, the local umbrella program administered by the United Way. Starnes, a longtime homeless advocate with a doctorate in community psychology, represents Atlanta on the Commission, along with Franklin.

The city’s current budget crunch won’t affect the operations of such city homeless initiatives as the Gateway Center, Starnes says, because it’s funded and staffed by the Commission, which has collected $50 million from public and private sources.

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HOMELESSNESS: New study quantifies homelessness in Georgia, finding that 20,000 people were homeless statewide one night in January and 75,000 went without a home at some point during the year.

NICHOLS TRIAL MOVED: To Atlanta City Court.

NOT THE LAST STRAW: The Athens Banner-Herald sees the silver lining in Gwinnett voters’ straw-poll rejection of MARTA.

IN TRANSIT: CNN reports on Americans weaning off driving and the rise of public transit; as usual, Atlanta is used as the example of the city lagging behind.

IN-THE-RED STATE: Gov. Perdue announces that the state budget is $600 million short. Maybe Atlanta and Georgia aren’t so different after all.

GOING AGAINST THE GROIN: Mike Hampton comes out of another minor league game after “tweaking” something, this time his groin, after just 29 pitches.

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LET’S ALL OWE TO THE LOBBY: Saxby Chambliss skips debate in which five Dems and a Lib argue over whether taking PAC money affects a candidate’s integrity.

OBAMA: Expected to make a trip to Georgia sometime this month, which could help some down-ticket Georgia Dems in July as well as November.

WRONG SIDE OF THE TAX: National average gas price reaches $4 a gallon for the first time in history. State gas taxes are often higher than the much-politicized federal tax, but many states depend heavily on them for infrastructure maintenance.

REST FOR THE WEARY: SCAD students design, build beds for the homeless in Savannah.

ROCK US LIKE A HURRICANE: State climatologist says low stream flows indicate a worsening drought; tropical storms may be our only relief.

WARMTH WAVE: Temperatures are nearing record highs. Still, AccessNorthGa.com avoids the temptation to sensationalize the story with this news graphic.

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CLINTON: With hopes dwindling despite winning Puerto Rico, her campaign sends e-mails to staff summoning them to NYC Tuesday night and telling them their roles in the campaign are ending. The campaign is silent as to whether this means her campaign is ending.

ON THE HALF SREL: UGA’s nationally renowned Savannah River Ecology Lab soldiers on with fewer than half its scientists despite the Bush administration cutting its funding eightfold last year.

LOW WITH THE FLOW: Beginning Sunday, all houses sold in DeKalb must have low-flow toilets.

DIPLOMA KILL: Clayton’s corrective superintendent scraps seniors’ diplomas because they don’t have his name on them; printing company offers to waive reprinting fee due to error.

TAKEN FOR A RIDE: Athens’ homeless population, which was 462 as of January, is partly fueled by resource-strapped rural police departments driving their homeless residents there under the premise of better opportunities, Athens officials allege.

BONES TO PICK: The Augusta Chronicle profiles Dr. Rick Snow, the GBI’s first full-time forensic anthropologist, who has 62 sets of nameless remains to identify.

“MAKING NEWS”: TV Guide Network reality show about Savannah’s low-rated WJCL/Fox 28 local news station debuts Wednesday night at 8.

WACHOVIA CEO: Asked to retire by the board of directors. AccessNorthGa brightens my day with presumably unrelated keypads and police lights.

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In 2007, 500 downtown Atlanta parking meters were stolen. They were sawed at their base and carted off, presumably by people eager to get their hands on the approximately $35 in quarters, dimes and nickels inside.

This morning, Atlanta police located several of the missing meters during a round-up of homeless people camping out in Downtown’s railroad gulch.

From the AJC:

Among the stolen items recovered during the 5:30 a.m. operation were an electric wheelchair and 20 or more parking meters, poles and all.

Wardell said homeless people steal the meters from parking places, then put them on the railroad tracks for trains to run over and break open so they can take the coins.

To reduce the likelihood of a train derailment, and to avoid paying roughly $250,000 annually just to replace stolen parking meters, the city should consider giving Atlanta’s homeless people keys to open the meters.

Think about it.

The homeless can get the change the city doesn’t promptly collect. The city can keeps its expensive meters intact. Freight trains will encounter fewer dangerous obstacles. And the panhandling which annoys the crap out of people who visit and work Downtown would likely drop.

Sugg, if you steal this idea for your urban think tank, I’m coming after you.

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Has anyone else noticed several homeless people downtown wearing black Geek Squad T-shirts? Are my eyes deceiving me?

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Through his work with the Atlanta Enterprise Center, Dennis Dunn helps ex-convicts and homeless find and get employment. In the last five years, AEC has helped more than 2,200 people obtain self-sufficiency through job training and placement. In October, AEC will celebrate its 25th anniversary.

Dunn encourages ex-cons to utilize the skills they learned in prison or from their criminal backgrounds to help them in the workforce. “There’s a job for everyone,” Dunn says.

“Just tell them you can handle money in a fast-paced environment and you have great customer-service skills.” That was Dunn’s advice to a former prostitute and stripper interviewing for a cashier position.

“[The advice] was kind of in left field, but the point is everybody has some kind of skills. What we try to do is talk to them about it.”

“I told this one woman, ‘You couldn’t go [to an interview] dressed the way you are because you’re just way too flashy.’ She said, ‘That’s not fair,’ and I said, ‘Fare is what you pay to get on a bus. There’s nothing fair out there.’”

The average hourly wage for the jobs obtained by AEC clients is $9.

(Photo by Andisheh Nouraee)

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Golden Billups, a 48-year-old ex-con 10 years without a home, sits with the other untouchables, lining a ramp under the Downtown Connector. Perched on a water jug, he hesitates before answering a few questions.

What were the last three meals you had? You know, when was the last time you had something to eat, and what did you have? It’s been a while — I’m on a water diet. That’s basically the food around here (Billups gestures to the water jug he’s using as a chair). I went to this church Sunday, had a frozen dinner [two days before]. All of the churches, they closed. All of ‘em went on vacation, so it’s been kind of rough. You gotta walk five hours to get a bite. For the past month, you eat what you can get. You see that bucket over there (He gestures to a shopping cart piled with various items, multicolored bags, blankets, clothes peeking out the top), that’s my house … lot of people ’round here getting drunk, smoking crack.

What would you do if you were mayor? You see that big old empty building over there (Billups points to the Atlanta City Hall East building) could fit all the homeless in Atlanta, all kids and everybody. It’s all money; they don’t care nothing about the homeless, the city. The programs, they fall through. I’d open that building, put in some schools, need to put in some bathrooms. That parking lot, (He gestures at the lot behind him) that’s the bathroom, people pissing and shitting over there. [The mayor] say she cares about the homeless; she ain’t doing nothing. That’s what needs to be addressed: affordable housing. Ain’t nowhere to live. Go to a matchbox room, [and it'll] cost $500. Lots of people got checks but can’t go nowhere. Got to get somewhere to pay rent, somewhere it ain’t sky high.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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ELEVEN PAIDEIA STUDENTS LIVED IN AN INMAN PARK PLAYGROUND FOR FOUR DAYS LAST WEEK AS PART OF A HOMELESS-IMMERSION PROJECT: “Can we have class inside today?”

For four days last week, 11 students from Atlanta’s Paideia private school forsook all the comforts of home — including a home itself. They lived in an outdoor playground in Inman Park, and were permitted to bring a blanket, a plastic sheet, $5, the clothes they had on, and a pair of old shoes.

The students were participants in teacher Elizabeth Hearn’s homeless-immersion class. The goal is to teach about the challenges of being homeless, to humanize homeless people and to show students how materialism “inundates our culture.” According to Atlanta Children’s Shelter, there are 2,500 homeless children in the city.

The 11 students who participated were chosen from a pool of 17 applicants. During the day, they walked around Atlanta, visiting with real homeless people on the street and volunteering in homeless shelters.
Maddie Mitchell, 13, says the most difficult part of the experience was “getting [dirty] looks from other people” while she walked down the street.

Lying on a cardboard box and looking up at the sky, 10th-grader Aryelle Cormier described an encounter the students had with a group of people in a homeless encampment in southwest Atlanta in almost spiritual terms.

“They didn’t have anything,” she said, “but they did.”

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