Fresh Loaf

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.”

(more…)

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1. Congress debates, votes on cap-and-trade energy bill (Good news: The House passed the monumental energy-conversation bill. Bad news: Georgia Congressman Paul Broun has embarrassed the entire state.)

2. Clermont foreclosure is tip of the iceberg (The plot thickens.)

3. Michael Jackson tributes in Atlanta (Atlanta celebrates the King of Pop. Twitter crashes. And Perez Hilton weeps.)

4. Coolest contest ever: Redesign the Clermont Hotel (The contest would have been a lot cooler if the seedy hotel wasn’t in danger of foreclosure. See No. 2.)

5. Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter told to vacate building (In the end, surprisingly, the homeless prevailed.)

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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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This afternoon, the Atlanta City Council will take up three proposals dealing with police resources — two are fairly interesting, the third fairly pointless. All three are resolutions, so they can be ignored by Mayor Franklin if she sees fit — and in one case she will.

The two most promising measures call for the city to establish mini-precincts at Crawford Long Hospital and Greenbriar Mall. Greenbriar, in Southwest ATL, is a no-brainer, but why Crawford Long? Because it’s across the street from the Peachtree-Pine shelter operated by the Task Force for the Homeless. As I noted in a recent cover story, the shelter already sucks up a large chunk of police resources in the surrounding Zone 5, including a patrol car stationed on Pine Street for 16 hours a day.

In both cases, the property owners — the mall and the hospital — are apparently so desperate for additional security that they’ve offered to lease the APD the mini-precinct space for $1 a year.

The third resolution requests the termination of employee furloughs for police officers and firefighters. It’s a fine idea — to increase police man-hours to combat the apparent rise in violent crime — and the Council is expected to approve it unanimously, but it’s a non-starter.

With the city in a serious revenue slump, Franklin has argued the city can’t afford to keep police on the job every day without slashing other programs and services. Privately, many Council members agree, but they’re unwilling to suggest in an election year what else should go on the chopping block instead. So they’ve left the tough decisions to an outgoing mayor, who — for good or ill — hasn’t backed down from making them.

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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

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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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