Tag: homelessness
Here’s where to find Atlanta’s emergency warming centers
Last winter, nearly a dozen people in the greater Atlanta area died of hypothermia from freezing temperatures, the majority of whom were homeless. When temperatures plummet, homeless Atlantans have limited options in finding a safe, warm space. Here is a list of Atlanta's current emergency warming shelters, how to contact them, and when they begin receiving people in need.
The I-85 fire could have destroyed Basil Eleby’s life. Instead, it may have saved it.
When he was suspected of starting the fire that collapsed a portion of I-85 in Atlanta, Basil Eleby—a homeless man who grew up without a family and struggled with addiction—was facing felony charges that would put him in jail until he was in his sixties. But one year after the fire, Eleby is on the path to recovery, thanks to the help of the Atlanta community.
Street Saviors: How Atlanta is helping—not jailing—the homeless, mentally ill, and addicted
Robby Ivy is “care navigator” for Atlanta's Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative, a program has created an unlikely alliance between police officers and criminal justice activists. Together, they’re trying to answer a key question: Can helping the addicted, mentally ill, and homeless instead of hauling them to jail make Atlanta safer?
How one Atlantan turned her homelessness into hope for others
When not working part-time at Pizza Hut, she would while away hours downtown at the library or the Five Points MARTA station, writing poetry or listening to a CD if she had batteries. It planted the seed for ChopArt, a nonprofit that Whitley, now 28, founded to help homeless children and teens find dignity, community, and opportunity through art.
When you buy, Design Samaritan donates furniture to families in need
“We give these families something that could be a new heirloom piece,” founder Paul Bowman says. “It’s like a metaphor that symbolizes their own transformation.”
Kennesaw State University’s Campus Awareness, Resource, & Empowerment Center
Georgia is now one of ten states identified by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth for having a higher-education network to combat collegiate homelessness.
For the Lady
There is a little old lady living in the bushes along the on-ramp by my house. I might have imagined her, but I doubt it. The last time I hallucinated, I was seventeen and driving south on the freeway that runs along the California coast. Suddenly I saw wild animals—giraffes, warthogs, and whatnot—running alongside my car, and keeping good pace, too.
Unsheltered No More gets homeless vets off the street
Back in 2012, after Atlanta bested thirteen other cities in a contest to house 100 homeless veterans in 100 days, Mayor Kasim Reed announced that the city would do even better in 2013 by helping 800 chronically homeless Atlantans—a significant percentage of whom are veterans—move into permanent homes by the end of the year. As of late September, the [Unsheltered No More Initiative][1] was on its way to meeting that goal, with 700 people moved off the street.
